As well as the whole world, the United Kingdom cautiously hopes for the coronavirus pandemic to finally recede in 2021. Until then, however, Covid-19 will keep people’s lives across the board, including the labour market. As expected, the 21st of June didn’t mark the lifting of the remaining lockdown restrictions.
Do people bolster their efforts to look for new opportunities as we are slowly approaching the end of lockdown measures? Jooble has some insights on this issue. Below are the key takeaways from our analytics.
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Since the pandemic outbreak, people suddenly got more time to think about their lives and careers. At the beginning of the year, they started searching jobs more actively.
Although the United Kingdom observed an unprecedented rise in Covid cases in January, the number of job seekers rose by 35% compared to December; in February, there was a 14% increase against the previous month. Jumping ahead a bit, January has been the most active month for job seekers so far. In general, the winter saw the number of job applications rise, with candidates trying to make up for the time lost during the most severe phase of the pandemic. The trend continued in March with 19% growth against February.
Surprisingly, despite the gradual decrease in Covid cases in early spring, people started putting in much less effort in job-searching. As a result, in April, the British were almost 15% less eager to find a new place to work compared to a month before. In May, the figure rose only by 4%. In June it already decreased by almost 16%.
How old are the candidates?
During the first five months of 2021, people aged between 25 and 34 years were the leading category of job seekers. While in 2020, they were closely followed by the candidates in their late thirties, they were now replaced by job seekers aged under 25 years. The latter were especially affected by the lockdown and its economic, political, and social implications, having to search for career opportunities even more desperately than before.
How can the youth solve this problem? And where? The applicants are especially eager to find new career opportunities in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Edinburgh, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Nottingham. Meanwhile, London (especially Mayfair and Borough), Manchester, Birmingham, Chester, and Leeds have been offering more and more job opportunities in the last 5 months. Looks like a moment when the ball is in the job seeker’s court!
Over the past five months, most jobs were offered to driving instructors, registered nurses, project jooble-newsistrators, cybersecurity trainees, yoga and singing teachers. The latter are promised an average pay of £35 to 40 per hour, while driving instructors, nurses, and project jooble-newsistrators could count on a £18 to 20 wage.
As we see, the labour market makes shifts and adjusts to the new reality. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, more people have started looking for jobs which don’t presume the time-consuming hiring process. Employers can pay daily, in cash. When it comes to blue-collar jobs, the high level of employee turnover doesn’t impact business. Therefore, more people consider working in delivery or cleaning as a good side hustle. A driver’s license became another must-have during the pandemic. Having your car is a big advantage due to numerous restrictions concerning public transport.
At the same time, expectations of the huge number of job seekers differ. Mostly, they want to apply for the positions of executive assistant, graphic designer, personal assistant, project manager, and production assistant. This means that people tend to look for job offers with mixed employment, i.e. those that provide for at least part-time remote work. Many popular job offers require basic computer literacy, flexibility, adaptability and—thankfully—minimum job experience. People are also keen on finding jobs with career opportunities.
Jooble analysts also emphasize a continuing “home office job” trend. The number of “remote” queries has soared by more than 20 times since the beginning of the quarantine.
Finding a new job is never easy. With the ongoing pandemic, it has become even less so. However, every challenge is an opportunity, and with some effort, one will always succeed in finding their dream job.
