added march 10th 2010
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UK Employer Demand Increased In February

New job opportunities rose 1% and average salaries rose 5%, attracting record job-seeker activity

• Employer demand steadily increased in February

• Average UK salaries for new job opportunities rose 5%

• Job-seeker numbers surged upwards to record highs
• on average19 people applied for each job

Employer demand slowly but steadily rose in February across the UK.  The number of new job opportunities increased by one per cent, while their average salaries rose by five per cent according to the Reed Job Index, which was published for the first time today (Wednesday 10 March 2010).

The Reed Job Index is based on data from the UK’s largest job board reed.co.uk, which every day has more than 90,000 job opportunities from 8,000 recruiters across 37 career sectors throughout the UK.   Each month the Reed Job Index tracks changes in the number of new job opportunities on offer compared to the previous month and against a baseline of 100 set in December last year.  

The Reed Job Index figure was 105 in February, which was a 1 point increase compared to January and 5 points above December last year, when the Index baseline was first set at 100. 

Employer demand rose most steeply for Graduates and HR professionals, as well as across the private and not-for-profit sectors in areas such as qualified and unqualified Accountants, Financial Services, IT, Charity and Voluntary, and Administrator staff. 

In contrast the Public Sector appeared to be feeling the impact of budget threats.  The Reed Public Sector Job Index plunged to 75, the lowest level of any sector, and demand for new staff was also down in associated areas such as Education and Social Care.

Salaries for new job opportunities rose five per cent on average, with growth led by London’s robust six per cent increase, giving a national average salary for new permanent online job opportunities of £34,215.  Yet salary growth remains patchy outside the Capital.   Regions like East Midland, North East England, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humberside experienced a two per cent drop in salaries for new opportunities, while in Wales the fall was as great as eight per cent.

While the numbers of new jobs on offer has steadily increased this year, job-seeker numbers have risen at a much faster rate in 2010.  Job-seeker competition increased to record levels as a result.  On average every new job opportunity received 19 applications, which is significantly more than the average of 13 applications per job experienced last September.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk, comments on the Reed Job Index results for February:

“Employer demand is slowly but steadily returning to the jobs marketplace, as the number of new job opportunities on offer continues to rise.  Salaries for new positions have started to increase for the first time since the recession began, especially in London.

“Even more striking is the fact that many more people are actively job-seeking now than at any time in the last couple of years.  Pent up demand from people who felt trapped in their jobs throughout the recession seems to have been released with the first signs of returning confidence.   New graduates, entrants, returners and unemployed people are all now competing with employed applicants, who have flooded back into the job marketplace since the beginning of the year.

“This is an excellent time for employers to attract new talent to help them make the most of the first signs of economic growth.  However organisations must work harder to retain their existing staff.  Many people who have seen their employers through the downturn now have itchy feel, and have started to actively seek their next career move.”

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For further information contact Katy Nicholson at katy.nicholson@reedglobal.com or 07712 873780

NOTES FOR EDITORS

-     The Reed Job Index is compiled by data drawn from online job vacancies and job-seeker activity on reed.co.uk

-     reed.co.uk is the UK’s largest commercial job board, with over 90,000 job opportunities from more than 8,000 recruiters at any one time

-     Applications sent to job opportunities on reed.co.uk were at their highest ever, with 1,807,763 applications received in February 2010

-     Traffic on reed.co.uk is independently measured by Hitwise, who verify that reed.co.uk has the highest market share amongst online job boards in the UK

reed.co.uk is part of Reed Global, the international recruitment group of companies

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