B2B sales in demand across the North West

More businesses recruiting for sales b2b than any other role type

Earlier this year, we co-produced a report with APSCo looking at trends across the North West. For people who didn’t see it, you can access it from here. Anyway, the findings from the report, were noteworthy, in that what we had seen in Q1, was that:

  • The North West had seen an uplift of 5.3% so far this year compared to 2023
  • Engineering vacancies being up 15.8% YoY, and 2024 continues to see growth
  • Technology also picked up in 2024, with vacancies up 18.9%

Adding to that, now that the economic data released, shows that we are out of recession, as an update on what we are seeing, what is noteworthy as an indicator of market confidence, is that the leading role type being recruited for, now across the region, in 2024 so far, is for corporate b2b sales positions. This is relevant because when companies scale up sales teams, it is typically because the mood is positive and they want to stimulate growth. In contrast, IT management has dropped from being the 2nd largest area being recruited for last year, as shown in our report to being the third, in 2024 so far. However there still remain more IT management vacancies than for Development & Engineering.

For recruiters, mapping how companies are pivoting their recruitment is critical, for ensuring your efforts to build candidates are directed in the right areas. Nowadays, with advertising becoming increasingly ineffective as a mechanism for candidate generation, outreach increasingly is the primary method used. Hence what we have started doing is working with our clients, where we profile not just which area is the largest function being recruited for, but what the relative change is, that is happening. Doing this means we can identify where your efforts are best spent, when it comes to candidate generation. Especially when you consider that before companies even instruct recruiters, they typically publish the vacancies through their ATS, we can build reporting in real time, to help you ensure you are moving as the market does, and being one step ahead of competitors as a result.

I am actually in Manchester seeing clients week commencing 3rd June, so if you would like me to show you how we can use data to improve your business operationally, just drop me a note and we can get something scheduled in. The Vacancy Analytics platform was first launched in 2021 and since then has had wide take up from both Multi-nationals and small to medium size businesses. Want to find out why? Get in touch.


The data referenced above has been sourced from Vacancy Analytics, a cutting-edge Business Intelligence tool that tracks recruitment industry trends and identifies emerging hotspots. With 17 years of experience, we have a deep understanding of market activities in the UK and globally.

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