The Architecture and Design labour market, which reached its zenith in 2022, is now poised for a significant decline in 2023, with an estimated -10.9% decrease in professional vacancies, bringing the total to 3,983 positions. Indeed, the increase in interest rates and the subsequent implications on borrowing costs for developers means that with the cost of capital going up, there has been a slight dip. That combined with the Conservative party scrapping housing targets, has also led to a slowdown in demand, according to the latest UK Real Estate Labour Market Trends report by market data analysts Vacancysoft.
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.
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.
Despite the fact vacancies have dropped in 2023 versus 2022, we see this as a temporary lull, as the attack vector is bigger than ever before. IT security vacancies are expected to total approximately 4,187 for the year, marking a 30.7% decrease from the 6,045 vacancies observed in 2022. Equally, at the same time, IT security has increased in share of all IT vacancies, from 4.1% last year, to 4.7%, making it one of the fastest-growing segments. This is according to the latest UK Technology Labour Market Trends report by Robert Walters and market data analysts Vacancysoft.
