The increasing spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) worldwide has had a heavy impact on the domestic tourism sector, in which job opportunities have decreased over 30 percent in little more than a month, according to a research Web site executive.
Data provided by udnjob.com shows that job opportunities generated by the tourism sector have dropped to 5.82 percent of the total number of its job opportunities. The percentage fell to 6.32 percent by the end of March following the outbreak of the newly discovered form of atypical pneumonia, down from 8.63 percent registered at the end of February.
A large reduction in outbound travel has markedly slashed the number of job opportunities for travel agents and has affected the profits of many carriers, the udnjob.com executive said, adding that the impact on the workforce of the domestic aviation sector remains limited, while its effects on recruitment at hypermarkets and supermarkets remain to be seen.
Because of the relatively larger scales of those businesses, the impact of the syndrome will be more noticeable should the spread of the epidemic continue, he pointed out.
A spokesman for another job-hunting Web site -- www.1111.com -- also pointed out that the demand for new blood in the tourism sector has plunged recently by 50 percent as the summer peak travel season approaches.
Citing the results of a recent public opinion survey conducted by the Web site, the spokesman said 92 percent of the respondents admitted that the contagion would affect their willingness to travel abroad, with 39 percent and 43 percent of them saying that they would only consider traveling in 18 months and nine months, respectively.
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