While the covid19 crisis continues to cause havoc in terms of the health of people in the nation, there is still some activity in terms of new vacancies, so what we have been doing is tracking the London market to see what sectors are still active and which types of roles are still being recruited for, where what we have been witnessing since the shutdown is the following:
- Daily volumes are still falling, with the rolling five day average now dropping to 335 new professional vacancies across all sectors in London. (normally we would anticipate between 1000-2000 per day)
- Week 2 of the shutdown had 9% lower volumes than Week 1, signifying that caution is the primary watchword. With HR focused on addressing issues around implementing furlough schemes and helping people work remotely, it is expected that it may not be until after Easter there is an uptick here.
- By sector though, we can see some areas are still recruiting and seeing increased demand for talent. Overall the Technology industry is still hiring, same with Banking. However, outside of Retail, probably the biggest collapse has been within the Real Estate Industry.
- By Professional Function, as expected IT remains the dominant area of hiring, accounting for 35% of all vacancies over the period since the shutdown. For context normally in any given week it would be at most 15%.
- The Marketing function has also held up surprisingly well. Specifically the fact that so many businesses now need to amp up their digital marketing means this area will be busy for the duration of the shutdown.
- Recruitment for HR professionals has also continued, where increasing numbers of roles are now for employee engagement. With teams now working from home, this period will be extra challenging for them to ensure cohesiveness.
- By role, the fact that hiring for IT has held up relative to other areas has meant that of the top ten areas being recruited for, all of the top five are IT. Out of those recruitment for Software Engineers is top.
- Outside of IT specific functions, other areas which have seen ongoing recruitment activity include Digital Marketing, Risk & Compliance in Banks, Audit Accountants and Branding Marketers.
Next week we will be doing a comparative analysis of YOY volumes along with analysing how the Easter Long weekend has impacted activity.
For more information about any of the above please contact us.