“In a boom market, anyone can make money, to grow when the economy turns, that’s the real challenge.”
The latest economic data to be released, will be of concern for recruiters, more than anyone. The economy is contracting. Whilst there has been a bounce in hiring over summer, this should give room for pause, for businesses, thinking about their next twelve months. Stick or twist, expand or contract? But even if recruitment is tidal, can a recruiter beat the tide? I would argue, with data, they can.
As one of the largest insurance markets in the world, the UK industry is surpassed in size only by the U.S., China, and Japan, where London is at the heart of that. With that, since quantitative tightening was initiated last summer, nearly all other market segments have slowed down in the capital. Not with Insurance, with January 2023 hitting all-time record levels according to Insurance specialists Harrison Holgate, and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
The long-term impact of COVID has yet to be felt on the economy. Equally, the societal change is already here. Work from home and hybrid is now becoming de-rigeur, where for people with London based jobs, it is increasingly a pre-requisite, especially when factoring the commute times. This is creating its own conflict within Financial Services, especially, as banks push for people to be back to work, equally are increasingly flexible about which work location is used. For example, HSBC now employs more people in Birmingham than in London.
Within the EU-27, the month of March 2023 witnessed the highest monthly total this year with 461 published Procurement/Supply Chain jobs. However, Q2 has seen a marked dip since then, hence the EU-27 countries are expected to undergo a decrease of 11.8% in 2023, according to Life Sciences specialists CPL, and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
In contrast to most other sectors, businesses in Energy and Defence are on track to post more vacancies this year than last.