I just came across the Totaljobs UK job market barometer graphic, which is worth a look. It tracks job postings versus application numbers by sector and region in Q2 2011 – obviously it only represents one website’s trends, but the sample size should give a fair reflection of changes in supply and demand across the job market.
The supply side (ie. jobs advertised) shows a very positive spike in March, which was then offset by the long bank holidays in April but started to increase again going into Q3. When that’s segmented by region it shows a substantial dip in Scotland, although the West Midlands, North East and Northern Ireland all fared better than Q2 2010.
Unsurprisingly the public sector took the biggest hit versus last year although engineering/industrials were up, which contradicts the sector’s sentiment from the graduate perspective, where it took a dive over the last 12 months according to the recent report by High Fliers.
Here at FreshMinds Talent our experience over the start of Q3 is that recruitment numbers have been resilient, which bodes well for a strong second half of the year. Things are usually a little slower in August with many people taking holidays, but over the last week the current market jitters don’t seem to have had too much of an impact. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Tim Webster is a consultant on the FreshMinds Talent Graduate Team
