Despite June marking another year since the Brexit vote, businesses across the UK have remained confident in their hiring efforts over the last 12 months, with job vacancies rising by 11.6 percent in Q2 2018. That’s according to the latest job market data from CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job site.
The report, which compared data from Q2 2018 with that of the same period in 2017, found that businesses have remained resilient in the past year, despite ongoing economic uncertainty. A number of key cities also saw above average growth in job vacancies in Q2, the top 10 include:
- Hull – jobs up by 38 percent
- Liverpool – jobs up by 19.7 percent
- Sheffield – jobs up by 18.9 percent
- Leeds – jobs up by 15.2 percent
- London – jobs up by 14.2 percent
- Glasgow – jobs up by 13.5 percent
- Edinburgh – jobs up by 12.1 percent
- Newcastle – jobs up by 11.6 percent
- Manchester – jobs up by 10.7 percent
- Birmingham – jobs up by 10.6 percent
Furthermore, some important industries also saw organisations remaining confident. The agriculture (38.2 percent), legal (26.6 percent), IT (19.9 percent), hospitality (18.7 percent) and manufacturing (17 percent) sectors all saw advertised vacancies rising year-on-year.
Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, comments: “Another year has passed and there’s still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding Brexit and what this will mean for many businesses across the UK.
“This is particularly true right now following the resignation of both the Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State, which will inevitably delay Brexit negotiations. Yet despite this, employers across the UK appear to be showing resilience, as they’ve continued to drive their recruitment efforts in the last 12 months.”
The nation as a whole witnessed a slight increase in pay in Q2 2018, rising by 0.6 percent year-on-year. What’s more, some of these key cities also saw impressive growth in advertised salaries last quarter, the top five include:
- Liverpool – salaries up by 6.1 percent
- Manchester – salaries up by 2.6 percent
- Glasgow – salaries up by 2.5 percent
- London – salaries up by 1.9 percent
- Birmingham – salaries up by 1.8 percent
Biggins continues: “According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the last quarter saw starting salaries rising at the fastest pace in three years and this rise in pay is reflected in our own data. It’s clear that businesses are pulling out all the stops, offering competitive salaries in a bid to attract talented new recruits to their vacancies.”
However, candidates were feeling less confident last quarter, with application rates decreasing across the nation. That said, candidate registrations reached a three-month high in June across a handful of key cities, including Sheffield (7.5 percent), Liverpool (6.8 percent) and Hull (6.7 percent). These findings suggests that candidates in these cities are preparing to begin their job search.
Biggins concludes: “It’s not surprising that candidates are feeling cautious, with ongoing economic uncertainty causing many to seek stability in their existing role. Businesses are taking positive steps to encourage candidates to begin moving in the job market, and this is already paying off in some locations. As we continue moving towards our exit from the EU, we hope to see candidates confidence pick back up.”
