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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

UK businesses prepare for the September recruitment rush

As job vacancies soar and candidate appetite grows across the nation

Businesses across the UK are preparing for the September recruitment rush, with job numbers soaring in some of the UK’s key cities last month. This is according to the latest statistics from CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job site, which revealed that Bristol (45.3%), Sheffield (42.5%) and Glasgow (37.8%) were the top cities for job growth last month.

The data analysed the average number of jobs across key UK cities last month, and compared this with statistics from the same period last year. The nation as a whole witnessed an impressive increase in advertised vacancies of 10.7% year-on-year, with the findings revealing that the top ten cities for job growth include:

  • Bristol - 45.3%
  • Sheffield – 42.5%
  • Glasgow – 37.8%
  • Leeds – 34.4%
  • Manchester – 33.2%
  • Cardiff – 30.3%
  • Southampton – 28.6%
  • Birmingham – 27.3%
  • Edinburgh – 27.1%
  • Liverpool – 19.2%

What’s more, some of the UK’s key industries also saw a strong growth in jobs last month, with plenty of great opportunities within social care (26.7%) manufacturing (24.5%) and accounting (16.9%). Not only this, but construction (13.7%), recruitment (13.5%) and automotive (12.3%) also saw impressive growth year-on-year.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, comments: “It’s clear that businesses are gearing up for the month ahead, with September traditionally being a busy time for recruitment. With recent graduates entering the workforce and September blues setting in as professionals return from their holidays, we often see an increase in those looking for their next exciting career opportunity.  With so many key cities experiencing job growth, businesses will have to fight hard to stand out from their competitors and attract the most talented candidates to their business.”

Furthermore, it’s positive to see that businesses were not subject to the usual summer slowdown in candidate appetite, with job applications also increasing across many of the UK’s key locations. In fact, Scotland in particular saw strong growth when comparing month-on-month data, with Glasgow and Edinburgh increasing by 13.8% and 6.1% respectively. Nottingham (8.3%), Liverpool (3.4%) and Brighton (2.3%) also witnessed an increase in candidate appetite when comparing data with July 2017.

Biggins concludes: “While August is typically a quieter month for applications, it’s clear from our findings that candidate appetite is showing no signs of slowing down, which is positive news for UK businesses. We expect to see these numbers continue to grow throughout September which means that now is the perfect time to be looking for your next hire. Just be sure to do all you can to stand out from your competitors, especially in terms of writing an enticing job advert that’s going to attract the most talented and eager candidates to your vacancies!”