And, while this is positive news for professionals, the findings, which explored job market data between 1st January – 30th June 2019 and compared the stats with each previous year, suggest that organisations across the UK may well be pushing up pay because they are struggling to fill their roles.
Indeed, the biggest pay increases between 2016 and 2019 were seen in the agriculture (up 23.3%), recruitment (up 18.3%), legal (up 13.7%) and hospitality (up 13%) industries. Alongside the above, the amount of jobs advertised in the first half of the year jumped up by 30.3% in 2019, when comparing data with 2016. The biggest jumps in jobs were seen in the following industries:
- Engineering – 29,479 more jobs (+26.5%)
- Construction – 23,423 more jobs (+21.7%)
- IT – 13,916 more jobs (+24.2%)
- Distribution – 11,840 more jobs (+58.7%)
- Manufacturing – 11,783 more jobs (+44.1%)
- Automotive – 11,564 more jobs (+27.4%)
- Retail – 11,800 more jobs per (+54.9%)
- Finance – 9,641 more jobs (+23.4%)
- Social Care – 8,900 more jobs (+25%)
- Property – 5,142 more jobs (+49.7%)
John Salt, Managing Director of CV-Library, comments on the findings:
“The fact that there are more jobs on offer is certainly positive, however, a huge amount of these are being left unfilled because Brits are too afraid to change roles right now. On top of this, the industries that have seen the highest increase in vacancies are the ones that are struggling with Brexit uncertainty the most, particularly because of a distinct shortage of EU talent.
“As a result, organisations have had no choice but to push up pay in a bid to entice professionals out of their current roles. Unfortunately, it appears that these efforts aren’t paying off and if the government does not focus on boosting the UK economy, we may well see a high number of UK companies reach breaking point in the next six months.”
The data reveals that application rates have fallen by 7.5% since 2016, with key sectors witnessing an even bigger drop in candidate appetite. These include:
- Agriculture – 8,160 less applications (down 34.5%)
- Customer Service – 283,079 less applications (down 32.3%)
- Hospitality – 35,969 less applications (down 30.6%)
- Retail – 135,288 less applications (down 26.8%)
- Social Care – 79,726 less applications (down 19.9%)
Salt continues:
“When people stop applying for jobs, it suggests that they’re nervous about switching up their careers and this is bad news for employers. As a result, recruiters are going to have to work harder than ever to head-hunt top talent; particularly via CV Databases. To help employers push forward with their hiring efforts, we’re focussing on making improvements to our site to ensure better matches, as well as integrating with leading Applicant Tracking Systems to make the user experience as seamless as possible.
“Our message to the next Prime Minister of the UK is to focus on boosting our economy and provide clarity on our country’s future relationship with the EU; otherwise Britain’s jobs boom may reach a sharp downturn.”
*Average salary in the UK between 1st January and 30th June:
- 2019 - £36,934
- 2018 - £33,361
- 2017 - £33,346
- 2016 - £32,663
- 2015 - £31,947
