Annual Summit

 

 

 

Last week Vacancysoft convened its annual summit against a backdrop of mounting scrutiny of Britain’s industrial strategy and its tangible effects on the labour market. The focus being to determine from the Industrial Strategy announced last June, what has so far delivered, and what it is likely to mean for hiring in the year ahead.

Coinciding with the summit was the publication of Vacancysoft’s annual report, produced in partnership with APSCo, Mercury CRM, Morgan McKinley and other leading organisations. The study offers a granular survey of hiring trends across sectors, from banking and defence to telecoms and life sciences.

A panel discussion, chaired by Sam Hurley, managing director of APSCo, brought together industry figures including Kalpesh Baxi and Steve Barnhurst. Their exchanges reflected a recurring theme of the day: policy momentum is evident, but its translation into jobs remains uneven.

Its findings paint a picture of divergence rather than uniform recovery.

• Across the board, demand for technology talent has risen, with companies accelerating investment in artificial intelligence. In financial services, banking is resurgent and AI adoption is gathering pace. Insurance, by contrast, tells a more subdued story: economic growth has decoupled from employment, with output improving without a commensurate rise in headcount.

• Energy remains emblematic of the gap between rhetoric and reality. Job losses in oil and gas have yet to be offset by gains in clean technology, while elevated power costs continue to weigh on manufacturing competitiveness.
• Telecoms has arguably been the most conspicuous beneficiary of the industrial strategy to date. Flagship initiatives such as Project Gigabit (a £5bn programme to expand broadband infrastructure) signal long-term commitment. Yet the anticipated surge in hiring has not fully materialised.
• In life sciences, biotechnology is enjoying renewed momentum. Nevertheless, the sector continues to grapple with the after-effects of Brexit, with overall job creation subdued. Defence hiring, meanwhile, is gathering pace and appears set to strengthen further. Though geopolitics may be a more decisive driver than domestic industrial policy.
• Beyond sector analysis, discussion turned to a structural concern: the widening mismatch between the skills employers require and the subjects students pursue. If acute shortages persist in areas such as engineering, data science and advanced manufacturing, should incentives, including targeted university scholarships, be deployed to steer talent towards them? The question remains open, but the consensus was clear: without closer alignment between education and industry, policy ambition alone will not suffice.

Readers wishing to obtain a copy of the full report are invited to contact us directly on support@vacancysoft.com

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