The coronavirus pandemic will create a big demand for workers needed to fill brand new jobs taking temperatures as companies start bringing employees back to offices, restaurants and factory floors, and as businesses begin welcoming back customers and travelers.
Government health agencies are already beginning to hire hoards of contact tracer workers.
Glassdoor has already noticed hundreds of postings for both types of jobs, and it expects those numbers to grow exponentially in the coming weeks. See some of those postings here, here, here and here.
The jobs pay well, too.
“From looking at job postings on Glassdoor, we’re seeing pay around $15 to $25 an hour, depending on the position and where it is located,” Glassdoor’s Amanda Stansell told WTOP.
“It is pretty great. These people are playing a very important role in the reopening.”
That means a temperature taker could make the equivalent of $50,000 a year or more.
There are no particular educational requirements for these jobs, other than a high school degree. A temperature taker does not need any kind of health care background.
Most contact tracing work can be done remotely, from home.
But both jobs are suited to a particular kind of personality, one that just happens to align with a large swatch of workers who have found themselves out of work since the pandemic began.
“People working in the restaurant industry. For example, waiters are just constantly working with people. Temperature screeners are going to need to interact with anyone who comes into the building where they are at. And, contact tracers are going to be calling people and trying to get really important information from them,” said Stansell, a senior research analyst.
Neither job will likely be a long-term one, but Glassdoor said there will be no let up in the growing demand to fill them for some time to come.
A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management in D.C. found 73% of organizations are implementing or considering on-site temperature screenings.
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