Despite growing uncertainty in the run up to the general election last month, data published today from the UK’s leading independent job board, CV-Library, suggests that recruitment companies remained confident in Q2 2017, with job vacancies and advertised salaries increasing year-on-year.
The Q2 job market report from CV-Library compared data from April, May and June 2017 with data from the same period last year, and found that there were 14.8% more jobs being advertised in the recruitment sector in Q2 2017, making it one of the top 10 industries to witness the biggest hike in vacancies:
- Manufacturing – 24%
- Charity – 21%
- Automotive – 20.4%
- Social Care – 18.2%
- Property Services – 16.3%
- Recruitment – 14.8%
- Engineering – 11.2%
- Design – 10.4%
- Agriculture – 9.9%
- Construction – 7.2%
Not only this, but some industries also saw impressive quarterly growth. Property saw the biggest increase of 18.4%, followed by manufacturing (8.1%), construction (7.4%) automotive (5.5%) and social care (3.7%).
Furthermore, certain areas in the UK witnessed strong year-on-year growth, with Scotland’s key cities, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee seeing a particularly impressive increase in vacancies; 26.4%, 17.8% and 16.6% respectively. Cities in the North also made the top 10, with Sheffield (16.2%) and Manchester (12.6%) outpacing job vacancy growth in London (11%).
Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library comments: “It’s great to see that businesses across the UK are continuing to invest in growing their workforce. It’s particularly positive to see such a high year-on-year jump in job vacancies across many key sectors, especially given that during the same period last year the Brexit backlash was yet to hit. Not only that, but in the run up to the recent election job vacancies were still increasing, despite ongoing uncertainty. For eager job hunters now is a great time to begin looking for the next opportunity.”
Similarly, many UK industries also saw an increase in advertised salaries when compared with data from Q2 2016, suggesting that businesses are working hard to attract talented candidates. Hospitality (7.7%) saw the biggest increase, followed closely by agriculture (6.2%), education (6.1%) and construction (4.6%). Customer Services (4.6%), accounting (4.1%) and automotive (2.7%) were some of the other industries that saw impressive pay growth.
Unfortunately, application rates across the UK fell by 3.4% when comparing year-on-year data, and 14.9% when comparing quarter-on-quarter data. That said, some key industries did see a positive rise in applications when compared with Q2 2016 and these included hospitality (9.1%), property services (7.9%), construction (5.2%) and social care (2.1%).
Biggins concludes: “The increase in advertised salaries further illustrates the high business confidence in the last quarter, suggesting that they are fighting to offer the most competitive packages. However, it’s clear that candidates are not reciprocating this confidence, with application rates dropping across the UK. As the dust settles on the recent election, we hope to see candidate appetite pick back up – especially given that there are some great opportunities out there in many of the UK’s top industries.”
Find more statistics and insights from the last quarter in our full Q2 job market report, here: www.cv-library.co.uk/recruitment-insight/job-market-report-q2-2017/
