The top five most competitive industries, based on average applications per role, were:
- Logistics - 79 applications on average
- Hospitality - 67 applications on average
- Tech, telecoms and media - 53 applications on average
- Automotive - 50 applications on average
- Legal - 38 applications on average
- Retail - 38 applications on average
However, for some of the most popular jobs, recruiters were left inundated with applications: one journalism trainee scheme received 8,955 applications in total, while a Christmas retail associate role received 3,935 applications. This was followed by a business development manager role at a logistics company, which was applied for by 1,282 applicants and a service role within a hospitality company received 1,211 applications.
Commenting on the findings, Dean Sadler, CEO at TribePad said: “It’s a tough environment for both job-seekers and employers. New applicants face large competition before they’ve even reached the interview process, while employers can be overwhelmed by the high number of applications for each role. This therefore makes it difficult for employers to identify the best talent, at the speed required, so they’ll often settle for good-enough, rather than the best, which can have knock-on effects to a businesses performance.”
The data also debunked the myth of January being the most popular month for job seekers. TribePad’s data actually revealed that the three top months for job applications were October, where 782,308 job applications were made for the 18,099 jobs listed, August, where 616,675 job applications were made for 17,638 jobs and June, where 604,677 applications were made for 14,632 listed jobs.
Sadler continues: “While ‘New Year, New Me’, rings true when it comes to taking up new hobbies or diets, when it comes to switching jobs, our data actually reveals the opposite. People are more conservative in January, preferring to wait until the summer months to seek pastures new. This creates the perfect storm for applicants and those responsible for recruitment; school-leavers and graduates also flood the market and increase the number of applications businesses receive, while in October, businesses begin to look towards hiring temporary staff for the festive period.”
“The sheer number of applications per job can overwhelm businesses if they’re not prepared. Employers have to ensure they have recruitment solutions that can cope, that can utilise technology to help manage and vet applications during busy periods, at scale. Because in a competitive business environment, it’s important you have the best staff for the job.”
The findings were taken from a data analysis of TribePad’s recruitment management software, which is used by some of the UK’s best known organisations and by 14 million people in 12 languages worldwide. Its clients include the BBC, Tesco, KFC, Sodexo, Serco, G4S and The Church of England.
