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.
As the UK economy teeters between anaemic growth, a cost of living crisis, strikes over pay crippling the public sector along with interest rates at generational highs leading to recruitment slowing down significantly when compared to 2022, it can be easy to be negative. Nonetheless, as business leaders, the challenge is to find a way to succeed regardless. In recruitment, that starts with identifying markets which are outperforming others, and segments that still seeing buoyant demand. With that in mind, this week, we have highlighted Luxury Goods as a sector to watch. Why?
Looking back to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, we observe a staggering 25% increase in marketing vacancies in 2023, with marketing constituting an 8.7% share of all professional vacancies in the sector, surpassing the 8.2% share observed in 2022. What this means is, not just is there a growth in marketing, but it is growing faster than almost any other area. This is according to the latest UK Finance Labour Market Trends report by Morgan Mckinley and market data analysts Vacancysoft.
