7 Noteworthy Trends in the UK Job Search Market

There are currently more than 30 million employees working in the UK labour market, continually accommodating the business needs of more than 5.7 million small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). With a national unemployment rate of 4.1% that has been declining steadily in recent years, virtually any reasonably skilled worker who persistently pursues employment has favourable odds of being hired somewhere.

Two key factors – rising employment rates and an increasingly well-stocked workforce of young talent – are combining to create a relatively competitive process for professionals vying for the best available openings. With that said, a resourceful job seeker can greatly improve the likelihood of expedited career advancement by considering the following 7 recently surging trends in the UK job search market.

1. Advanced CV Distribution Services

The conventional approach to finding a new job typically involves submitting applications directly to employers who actively advertise openings via job listing platforms. While this method can still be effective, a growing group of progressive professionals have begun reaching out to recruiting agencies with the help of advanced CV distribution services. These career marketing solutions provide a mutually beneficial arrangement for both job seekers and recruiting agencies. The applicant gets their CV shown to more recruiters, and the recruiting agencies get to broaden their prospective talent pool.

2. Heightened Focus on Web Presence

With IT proficiency, public reputation, and general tech savviness being important attributes to have in almost every industry, the vast majority of professionals have begun focusing on the expanding their web presence. Hiring managers and recruiters want to be able to look up applicants and find plenty of transparency and useful information about them online. Thus, having a blank or insufficient web presence has become a liability in a market where an impressive LinkedIn or Google+ profile can potentially hold almost as much as weight as your CV.

3. Apprenticeships and Internships on the Rise

Statistics show that an increasing number of young professionals are taking the apprenticeship or internship route, as the government has implemented an apprenticeship levy to make such arrangements simpler for both companies and applicants. Dedicated training institutions have sprung up to respond to the government’s ongoing initiative to increase the availability of educational job openings. Although there’s still a shortage of apprenticeships in the UK relative to the growing population, recent legislation and subsequent efforts show that the tide is turning in this area.

4. Recruiting Agencies Expanding Networks

Not only are candidates reaching out to recruiters through CV distribution services, on the flip side, recruitment agencies are networking with such services to gain access to a continual influx of useful talent. With agencies having access to more candidates through a variety of platforms and mediums, job seekers are able to take a more passive approach to employment acquisition by waiting for the offers to come to them instead of vice versa.

5. Job Vacancies at an All-time High

There are currently more job vacancies available in the UK than at any other time in recorded history. Many of these vacancies are due to companies needing additional help to facilitate expansion, while another significant portion have opened up due to employees moving on to other companies. Thus, there’s a high demand for people who are capable of replacing previous employees or filling innovative new roles in the corporate hierarchy.

6. Employers Competing Harder for Top Talent

While inexperienced or relatively unskilled candidates are still facing a gauntlet of competition, the higher tier of professionals who have verifiable credentials and expertise are enjoying the opposite reality – employers are competing for them instead of the other way around. As a result, many industry leading companies are offering premium incentives like hefty welcoming bonuses and other appealing career benefits to reel in the best talent.

7. More Employees are Seeking Promotions and Better Jobs

Recent surveys and labour statistics indicate that fewer employees are willing to continue working jobs they’re not fully satisfied with. With so many vacancies available at any given time, it’s not surprising that companies are having to compete to not only secure talent but also to retain it in the long-term. As such, employers are having to focus more on maintaining high employee morale as well as other talent retention measures that weren’t even a primary priority just a few years ago.

8. An Abundance of Opportunities Despite Fierce Competition

If there are more job vacancies than ever before, then how can the market also be more competitive than any other time in recorded economic history? For professionals with extensive credentials and inspiring CVs, the market is a wide-open landscape of opportunity, but for a novice candidate fresh out of college, the challenge of winning a prestigious job is a bit of an uphill battle. Fortunately, with apprenticeships on the rise and many companies being shorthanded, the market is becoming increasingly promising for people of all skill levels and backgrounds.