Over a third of employees in Australia are worried about their job security and future job search prospects due to current lockdowns, according to a survey from recruitment firm people2people.

The survey of over 1,200 Australian workers also found that 1 in 5 employees have been asked to reduce their hours and/or take unpaid leave.

Meanwhile, 19% were feeling more confident about the business landscape now than earlier in the year.

Mark Smith, Group Managing Director of people2people said, “The new lockdowns have seen millions of non-essential Australian workers forced to stay home. Although relief has been announced for SME’s, at times like these it can do little to reassure employees of their current job security coming out of lockdown and or future employment opportunities if redundancy is inevitable.”

“At the start of year, business confidence had returned to an all-time high since the start of the pandemic,” Smith continued. “Although the 2021 recovery hasn’t been as smooth as predicted, business confidence is expected to return to high levels and drive growth across Australia once the Delta variant controlled.”

A number of cities in Australia have imposed lockdowns to prevent the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant.

Visit SIA’s Coronavirus (covid-19) Resource Centre to keep up to date on the coronavirus pandemic.