The world is currently at a standstill. Ever since the emergence and spread of the COVID 19 lives, businesses, and employment have been overturned. The year 2020 will be the year that the world was put on pause as quarantine and self-isolation measures were put in place to combat the spread of the virus.

Data analysts wanted to examine in great detail how the COVID-19 pandemic affected data and analytics professionals. Their goal was to understand how the coronavirus affected jobs specific to data and analytics as well as how the people within this profession continue to work.

A survey conducted by TDWI used 200 responses from subjects. Half of the responses gathered came from the United States, while the rest came from other parts of the world. The study examines how COVID-19 impacted the U.S. Preliminary results indicate that responses gathered from the U.S. could be applied to the rest of the world.

Layoffs

Virtually every profession has been affected by the spread of COVID-19. In the survey conducted, 13% of professionals from data science and analytics positions said that several companies have been laying off or furloughing many data and analytics professionals. This was done in a concerted effort to curb company spending in a time when there’s minimal or no revenue coming in.

A good majority of the respondents – around 50% – were concerned about their job security, fearing they would be the one next to be asked to leave. Furthermore, many of them believe it would take years, not months, to get “back to normal.” The enormity and scope of COVID-19’s impact on the economy are only just beginning to be felt, according to Arcane Marketing.

Work is changing

The economic climate has been upturned drastically and it is to be expected that new questions are going to be asked. The respondents were also asked how COVID-19 impacted the kind of work that they do. More than half of them agreed that they are being asked to answer questions regarding the economic ramifications of the pandemic. Many data analysts believe they needed to update their models and other analytics to be able to accommodate emerging data regarding the ongoing health crisis.

Across the industry, analysts are also asked to do more. They are seeing a spike in the frequency of analytics being conducted. They are also asked to bring new data sources to be used for said analytics, as well as features and attributes for the analysis.

Work from home is becoming the norm

Forced self-isolation and city-wide lockdown meant that for people who can are asked to work from home. There was no time to adjust to this new working scenario – one-day people were coming into work, the next they were answering emails and completing tasks in their living room coffee table.

To some, this might mean a refreshing and welcomed change from the stifling environment of the office. But in reality, not many have adjusted well to this new norm. Some employees who have been working over 10 years in one setting found it hard to cope now that they’re being asked to work from home.

In addition, data analysts who regularly work with others now find it hard to collaborate with their teams over video conferencing applications. Technical issues also came up as more employees were asked to work remotely. Things like issues setting up VPNs, problems with the bandwidth, or analytics taking a long time to complete because of the reduced workforce.