Multinational IT services company Datacom is seeking 2,000 workers to fill positions in Australian call centres.

The jobs in Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, and Brisbane largely involve supporting telehealth and other government services.

“With enormous pressure on these services, Datacom is in the unusual position of recruiting up to 2,000 people to support telehealth services and other essential government services,” said Datacom MD, Stacey Tomasoni.

“We are partnering with commercial organisations as we work closely with government clients at state and federal level to support their people to work remotely, connect with their customers through digital and traditional channels and, in this case, support essential services through our contact centres.

“This is a difficult time for everyone. The climate is uncertain and unpredictable for individuals who are anxious about family and about the future, and for organisations which may be simply trying to keep the lights on.”

Hatch Exchange is one of the companies Datacom has worked with to find staff during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hatch was originally built in 2017 to help university students find work while they studied.

As the nation began shutting down, the platform pivoted to help employers land new temporary jobs for their staff as expected supply and demand for employment was suddenly flipped on its head.

Co-founder of the platform, Adam Jacobs, recently told Business Insider that Hatch Exchange hopes to help protect the economy when it needs to bounce back once restrictions are lifted.

“If you think about it, most impacted sectors like aviation or tourism or retail, if they lose 50 per cent of their talent and those people don’t come back again. That is a huge impact on the ability of those industries to recover,” Jacobs said.

“It’s a huge loss of IP and talent infrastructure.”

Recent figures from the Grattan Institute estimate that as many as 3.4 million Australians could find themselves unemployed due to the coronavirus.

Hatch Exchange worked with Datacom to help find Qantas staff new roles after the airline stood down 20,000 employees last month.

"The placement of Qantas flight crew and operations staff into Datacom's contact centre within 72 hours is a wonderful example of the agility and talent of those people,” said Jacobs

“This is the beginning of a growing movement looking to rebuild the Australian economy and support the employment of tens of thousands of stood down workers.”

The need for Datacom to fill call centres follows a sudden gap in customer support as many off-shore call centres have been made suddenly unavailable due to international coronavirus restrictions.

Telstra began searching for local customer service operators after call centres in the Philippines were shut down.

The telco’s search for 1,000 temporary staff was met with an overwhelming response as 19,000 people applied to fill the roles.