Despite this, there were 31.7% more vacancies up for grabs than there were in June; suggesting that the job market is slowly picking back up.
The job board analysed data from its site throughout the month of July and compared the findings with data from July 2019 and June 2020 to build an understanding of how the UK job market is fairing right now. It reveals that applications to these roles have increased by 9% year-on-year and 16.7% month-on-month; causing the application to job ratio to soar by a massive 105.8%.
What’s more, further analysis shows that:
- The cities which experienced the biggest drop in job vacancies year-on-year were Aberdeen (down 73.9%), Glasgow (down 57.9%), Portsmouth (down 55.1%), Bristol (down 54.7%) and Leeds (down 52%)
- Key industries also saw job numbers drop significantly year-on-year, including catering (down 83.9%), design (down 79.7%), administration (down 77.8%), media (down 76.2% (and leisure/tourism (down 75.9%)
- When looking at the most competitive locations to find a new job in, the data reveals that the application to job ratio rose by 152.5% in Northern Ireland, 151.7% in the South East, 148.8% in the South West, 139.7% in the East of England and 102.3% in the East Midlands
In addition to this, the only industries to see an increase in job adverts year-on-year were the Public Sector, where vacancies rose by a massive 61.9%, and social care, where they increased by 2.7%.
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, comments on the findings: “Demand for jobs is still outstripping supply and this will be a trend that we’ll continue to see for some time. Naturally, the summer months tend to be a quieter time for both recruitment and job searching. However, the fact that our economy is struggling means there are less opportunities up for grabs than normal and more people looking for work; not an ideal combination. At the same time, certain industries and locations have been hit harder than others and this may worsen if there are more local lockdowns like we’re seeing in the North.”
Interestingly, despite there being less jobs available, average pay actually rose by 5.7% year-on-year; from £34,956 in July 2019, to £36,958 in July 2020. Despite this, average salaries did drop in industries hit-hard by the pandemic, such as leisure/tourism (down 7.3%), catering (down 6.1%), charity (down 5.1%), hospitality (4.9%) and media (down 3.1%).
In addition to this, it fell by 0.1% month-on-month across the UK, with the biggest drops experienced in Northern Ireland (down 9.3%), East of England (down 2.1%), the North East (down 1.6%), the South West (down 0.5%) and the West Midlands (down 0.4%).
Biggins continues: “While it’s a promising sign that salaries are higher than they were a year ago, the month-on-month dip in pay for new jobs does suggest that companies are starting to make difficult decisions about their workforce. Candidates may well expect to take a pay cut during an economic downturn, but be prepared to have difficult conversations with applicants who may be expecting more than you can offer right now.”
