The job board analysed the thousands of job posts advertised on its site in May, as well as the millions of job applications made to these roles, to work out the average application to job ratio in each major UK city monitored. It reveals that the average app to job ratio in the UK was 25.59, however, certain cities saw above-average figures:
- Birmingham: 44.66 applications per job (up 99.7% year-on-year)
- London: 42.25 applications per job (up 105% year-on-year)
- Leeds: 32.85 applications per job (up 109.4% year-on-year)
- Newcastle: 32.83 applications per job (up 45.2% year-on-year)
- Leicester: 32.29 applications per job (up 136.7% year-on-year)
- Glasgow: 31.77 applications per job (up 101% year-on-year)
- Manchester: 31.62 applications per job (up 116% year-on-year)
- Sheffield: 25.60 applications per job (up 93.8% year-on-year)
- Aberdeen: 24.17 applications per job (up 113.9% year-on-year)
- Nottingham: 24.09 applications per job (up 87.2% year-on-year)
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, comments:
“The job market is shifting, and this means that competition for the roles that are available is only going to intensify. Not only do we have people entering the job market who may have sadly lost their jobs, but there are also people who are on furlough and may be worried about the security of their role once the scheme changes in August. This, coupled with the fact that there are less jobs being advertised than normal, means organisations may receive more applications right now than they would usually be in a stable market.”
Alongside this, the job board looked at data for key industries and found that the application to job ratio was even higher in certain sectors. In fact, it stood at 97.55 in administration, 81.33 in customer service, 77.22 in hospitality, 66.59 in distribution and 55.62 in agriculture. The full list includes:
- Administration: 97.55 applications per job (up 222.5% year-on-year)
- Customer Service: 81.33 applications per job (up 308.1% year-on-year)
- Hospitality: 77.22 applications per job (up 507.2% year-on-year)
- 4. Distribution: 66.59 applications per job (up 198.7% year-on-year)
- 5. Agriculture: 55.62 applications per job (up 490.7% year-on-year)
- 6. Sales: 52.05 applications per job (up 305.9% year-on-year)
- 7. Construction: 51.67 applications per job (up 272.2% year-on-year)
- Manufacturing: 49.54 applications per job (up 142% year-on-year)
- Marketing: 45.52 applications per job (up 270.5% year-on-year)
- Catering: 45.299 applications per job (up 293.4% year-on-year)
Biggins continues:
“If you are hiring right now, try to be sensitive to candidates who may be struggling to find work. This isn’t the time to let your employer brand slip and communication is always going to be key. If possible, offer constructive feedback to people who aren’t successful and try to build up a talent pool to tap into in the future. Your hiring process may take longer than normal right now, but as long as you keep candidates up to date, you’ll continue to build a strong rapport – and not burn any bridges.”
About CV-Library
CV-Library is one of the UK’s largest online job sites and attracts over 4.3 million unique job seekers every month. Founded by Lee Biggins in 2000, CV-Library is the UK’s leading independent online job board with a database of over 15 million CVs.
