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Labour Market Focus Week: Adzuna’s market perceptions

In continuation of the series of articles for our Labour Market Focus Week, Bdaily talks to Andrew Hunter and Doug Monro, co-founders of Adzuna, a search engine for jobs, cars and property, about their perceptions of the UK labour market.

The British economy is still sluggish; are you finding the job market is following this trend?

In Q1 the Adzuna Jobs Index revealed clear signs of improvement in the labour market. Despite the struggling economy and Britain losing its AAA credit rating, vacancy count was up 4% over 6 months. While these numbers painted the beginnings of a positive picture, the latest ONS data suggests that the job market might be coming in line with the economy. This quarter, the total number of jobs currently available in the UK stands at 480,940, down 2.2% over the last 6 months. 21.1% of jobs, however, are part time roles and number of zero hour vacancies hit a record high in March 2013. In addition the rate at which salaries are declining across the country should be a concern. The average advertised wage stands at £31,929 per annum, down 3.7% over 6 months. Yorkshire and the Eastern England have been hit hardest with an average 5% drop in advertised pay packets.

Are companies preferring to downsize and consolidate rather than seek new opportunities?

Yes, hard to tell from our data. I would say that based on the number of ads we’re seeing in our index, there’s more of a propensity for companies to move staff to part-time than make roles redundant and downsize.

Employers need to make their jobs more accessible to graduates. Large companies and old school businesses need to market their jobs and get them out there on social media and job search engines like us.

Is there a skills shortage in the UK to satisfy big business or, conversely, insufficient jobs for skilled graduates?

Recent data suggests that there is a massive tech skill shortage at the moment as employers demand for IT skills in Britain is greater than ever before. Analysing the language companies use in their job ads, we have seen record levels of demand for Web Developer Skills and Social Media professionals. There are over 40,000 ads posted by employers this month looking for employees fluent in ‘C++’, 19,000 referencing ‘Facebook and Twitter’ skills and 13,000 companies looking for staff with ‘Java’ experience. ‘Quant Developers’ are highest paid tech skill in the UK reaping in a healthy average salary of £63,238 p.a, up 1.9% in the past 6 months. “Pinterest” related skills are the biggest riser.

The market is also lacking people with startup experience. It’s radically different to a big company, and British culture is very risk averse (so a lot of people are more likely to opt for safe corporate stooge jobs).

What can be done to fix this problem?

We need more home grown talent through better education - e.g. introducing Computer Science in schools (which the government is doing a bit of, but not enough of). Create more of a start up culture in the UK, particularly in London. London needs to be seen as more of a centre of excellence for development. Tech City is starting to move us in the right direction, but we’re still not attracting enough overseas tech talent to London.

In which sectors is recruitment growing?

The IT, Engineering and Healthcare sectors are awash with open vacancies in April, with over 148,000 jobs being advertised this month between them. The Hospitality and Catering sectors have also seen a swell in available jobs this month with the number of vacancies being advertised rising 4% in the last 30 days. The Teaching sector is also hot demand as exam season approaches and are now able to command an average of £24,577p.a., up 3% in the past 6 months.

In terms of numbers, are vacancies declining or increasing?

Adzuna Job Vacancies Index:

Vacancies Index % change monthly % 6 month change UK vacancies

(June 2012=100)
Vacancy Index (Apr 13) 106 5.4% -2.2% 480,940
Vacancy Index (Mar 13) 100 -7.14% -0.77% 456,200

Adzuna Average Salary Index:
Salary Index % change monthly % 6 month change UK average salary
(June 2012=100)

Salary Index (Apr 13) 94 -1.0% -3.7% £31,929
Salary Index (Mar 13) 95 -2.7% -5.4% £32,258

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Adzuna .