A sign of things to come? Professional vacancies on the rise in London
I think we can all agree that 2020 hasn’t exactly gone to plan so far. As the year began, the recruitment world and, indeed, much of the UK had their sights firmly set on Brexit as the end of the transition period loomed. Few of us could have predicted that this would be pushed off the radar as a result of a global pandemic.
As countries shut borders, businesses closed their doors and citizens worldwide stayed indoors to slow the spread of the virus, recruitment companies across the world braced themselves for the worst. At the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), we’ve been tracking the hiring trends across the UK throughout the pandemic. And while we certainly saw vacancies plummet at the beginning of the lockdown period, things appear to be improving steadily.
In fact, in latest data published this week, we can see an increase in positivity in London in particular. The statistics, provided by business intelligence specialist Vacancysoft as part of its Covid hiring tracker, revealed an uptick in the average number of vacancies added daily in July, suggesting we’re slowly but surely getting back on track in the UK.
If we look at the data in detail, we can see that at the beginning of Q2, the five-day rolling average was just 167 new vacancies added in the capital which, for the beginning of the lock down period, is perhaps no surprise. In comparison, by the end of July this had more than doubled to 358, with some days seeing over 400 roles added. To really demonstrate the optimism this represents, prior to the pandemic, London’s five-day rolling average for these professional vacancies would be between 500 and 600, indicating that confidence is slowly returning to the capital’s businesses.
Naturally, this increase in vacancies won’t be felt across every sector, and there are still some areas such as hospitality that remain hard hit. But the pockets of recruitment activity that we’re seeing are certainly encouraging. Online shopping giant, Amazon, certainly holds the lion’s share of recruitment activity in London, advertising over 200 vacancies in the capital in July alone. This is perhaps unsurprising given the continued shift to online shopping in light of the pandemic. And as the UK continues to invest in a Covid-19 vaccine, it’s perhaps no surprise that GSK also featured in the top ten hiring companies in London.
However, as APSCo’s CEO, Ann Swain explained, while this uptick in vacancies is encouraging, a level of caution remains as we head toward the end of the job retention scheme in October:
“It’s encouraging to once again see positive signs in London’s hiring activity and these latest statistics confirm an upward trend that we’ve noted over the summer months so far. While we certainly still have a long way to go before we’re completely back to pre-Covid levels of business confidence and hiring, current indicators suggest that London is certainly on the right track. However, as funding through the furlough scheme continues to wind down and several major firms announce redundancies, we could soon see an influx of candidates seeking new roles.”
It’s certainly difficult to predict what the rest of the year has in store for the world of recruitment, but as the increase in vacancies bolsters the optimism of the staffing industry, I for one remain cautiously positive that we’re edging out of the crisis, albeit slowly.
