In a week where the government have published the latest unemployment numbers , the Recruitment & Employment Confederation have posted their latest Jobs Recovery Tracker  and where the markets have had their best week in response to the exciting news about THE vaccine, there is a lot to consider in the job market. All of our team are asked about the overall job market with a lot more regularity right now.I have summarised all of the data from the reports that was most interesting to our business and a summary of what we have seen in the Yorkshire market over the past few weeks.THE BIG PICTURE

• Unemployment levels are at 4.8%. (Up 0.9% from last year and 0.7% from last quarter. The last time we were at this level was in Q4 2015)
• Numbers of jobs advertised in the UK higher in November than it was pre-virus in March – 1.36 million. With growth of new jobs in the North of England outpacing London significantly
• Construction, logistics and FMCG have led the list of strengthening sectors

THE PICTURE THROUGH OUR LENS

• An expected drop in the level of permanent jobs compared to last year, but not at the levels that many expect. All six of our consultants are busy and working with newly created hires in the manufacturing, logistics, construction and financial services sectors. Technology has been the clearest sector that has expanded across our client portfolio.
• Many of our clients are growing ahead of expectation. Sales are growing and there are more business transactions happening over the past quarter than we expected.
• A steep rise in the demand for temporary staff over October and November. (see below)

A RESURGENT TEMPORARY AND INTERIM MARKET We predicted that this market would bounce back strongly in August. With employers being more short term in outlook and a growing supply of available workers, it seemed inevitable. However, our results in August and September suggested that our prediction was wrong – there was growth but well behind the pace set by our permanent activity. Thankfully, it was the timing of our prediction rather than the outcome that was wrong. The temporary market has bounced back very strongly over October and November;

• We have seen an increased demand for temporary staff across all levels from non-qualified to FD, across all sectors and locations across Yorkshire
• Reasons for hiring have covered bridging gaps before permanent hires start, systems implementations, sickness cover and maternity leaves. The largest reason we have seen for hiring by some margin, has been to support an overstretched finance department – due in some cases to managing a reduction in headcount made earlier in the year and in others to support growth
• There is a “ready” supply of good temporary candidates. More than enough within our network to meet most instructions we receive, but certainly not an over-supply. If employers just followed the unemployment headlines, they could easily fall into the trap of false-expectation of the numbers of quality finance candidates who are out-of-work.

A busy temporary market is good for everyone – Every reason that this trend will increase over the coming weeks ahead. We are ready and looking forward to helping it grow as much as we can.