Positive signs for employment as job advertising increases by 49%

On 12^th August 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that Britain had entered the deepest recession since records began. According to the Office for National Statistics, GDP fell in the second quarter by 20.4% compared with the previous three months – the biggest quarterly decline since comparable records began in 1955. This comes after the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to maintain the Bank Rate at 0.1%. So how is this impacting on employment?

The number of people in work also fell by 220,000 between April and June, representing the largest quarterly decrease since May to July 2009 when the UK was in the depths of the financial crisis.

But it’s not all bad news. Geek Talent, a North-East provider of HR and recruitment software solutions, has identified that some sectors are displaying positive signs of growth and offering employment opportunities.  

Dominic Murphy, Founder of Geek Talent, said: “Although we are in an undeniably worrying time, there are some positive signs that shouldn’t be overlooked. For the week ending 1^st August, we saw job advertising increase by 49%, predominantly led by the Logistics and Manufacturing sectors.

“The construction, healthcare, manufacturing, engineering, finance, and IT sectors are also demonstrating growth. In fact, there is a people shortage in some roles. This highlights the fact that there are still roles available, and companies are still hiring.”

Geek Talent Insights provides real-time insights into the UK job market and skills landscape, using natural language processing and machine learning to analyse millions of CVs and job adverts every single day.

Dominic continued: “Of course, other sectors are clearly struggling. Roles in accommodation and Food Service, Advertising and Marketing, HR and Recruitment, Admin and Retail, Sales and Customer Services, and Arts and Entertainment are all down around 44% compared to pre-Covid-19 levels.

“Assuming there are no significant major localised lockdowns, we are estimating a Q32021 recovery, with slow and steady growth. There will need to be targeted support for sectors struggling to recover, particularly Accommodation and Food Service, and Arts and Entertainment.

“We also need to look at how to move people from falling sectors into those that are growing. This will involve developing company intelligence on who’s hiring and launching campaigns to kick start the reskilling needed to move people into high growth sectors.”

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