As the markets have normalised post-pandemic, so the job flow has slowed for scientists. In contrast, engineering vacancies are on the rise, with an estimated 1577 openings in 2023, marking a 6.5% increase from 2022 according to Life Sciences specialist recruiters CPL, and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
As we have touched on before many times, 2023 has been quiet compared to the mania of the last few years and job volumes have been significantly lower. This has led to talent teams within businesses being scaled back and given this is the most critical function for businesses looking to hire, it acts as a good indicator as to business confidence. When businesses increase hiring into internal recruiters, there is confidence in growth, when vacancies drop, this means there will be less hiring.
The outlook for the Midlands region, encompassing both west and east, is down on last year, with there being a significant decrease of -22.4%. Nonetheless, the West Midlands is poised to increase its share of the national job market from 6.7% in 2022 to 9.6% in 2023. This is according to the latest Regional Trends report with APSCo and Vacancysoft.
As we enter the final quarter of the year, for many people, 2023 has been challenging in a way not seen for several years. Job flow has slowed down, and as a result, for recruiters, revenues have dropped too. In previous posts we have touched on, how vacancies have dropped year on year, equally what is interesting when looking at 2023, is the variance by sector. For some markets, there should now be signs of optimism, where for others, Q3 saw the lowest job totals posted in the year to date.
Recruitment levels are returning to 2019 levels. However, what has changed is that more vacancies are happening proportionately within the Banks. So for context, in 2019 we saw 381 legal vacancies in banks, in 2023 this is set to be over 500. In contrast, within the law firms, in 2019 we saw 577 banking vacancies, whereas this year we estimate the total to be barely over 400. This is according to the latest UK Legal Labour Market Trends report by Search, and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
