Snapshot of UK Jobs Market

By Julie French

It is clear that employers have become much more diligent in finding candidates that exactly meet their requirement and are much less likely to accept compromise. In response to this agencies have tightened their screening criteria and reject even good CVs that do not describe a highly relevant skill set and experience. Of the job seekers that submit their CV for a review, only 7.2% of CVs pass the "instant appeal test" which largely determines shortlist selection. Despite this 57% of these job seekers actually can demonstrate they possess what recruiters are seeking; it is just that their CVs do not present them in the best light.

74% of Perfect CVs customers are now in new jobs (compared to 71% in 2007). Optimisation of CVs has become much more important as more and more recruiters are using scanning software to select suitable CVs. These search engines are similar to using e.g. Google; keywords are entered and a set of matching results are displayed. If a candidate that represents excellent fit for a job does not have a CV containing the correct keywords with sufficient prominence they are invisible to the recruiter. Not surprising that CV Optimisation or rather lack of it, is the number one answer to the question "Why do I not get selected for interviews".


On average job seekers took 9 weeks to find a new job (compared to 6 weeks in 2007) but there is a wide spread on this figure. Sales, Customer Service, Administrative, Secretarial and junior / mid level retail candidates took 3.2 weeks (exactly same as in 2007) whereas IT, technical and engineering candidates took 8.7 weeks (7.1 weeks in 2007)and senior managers took an agonising 17 weeks (8.4 weeks in 2007) with often 3 or 4 interviews being required particularly for finance jobs. Surprisingly the figure for public sector roles at 4.4 weeks was actually faster than in 2007 when the time lapse was 5.4 weeks. A trend we have noticed is that more manual and trades workers are requiring CVs, often for contract work and this cohort was finding work in an average 4.2 weeks but regrettably we did not monitor this sector previously so have no comparative data.

The latest ONS figures show a slightly improving unemployment rate at 7.8% but index of both manufacturing and production are both down around 10% compared to 2006, only services are holding up compared to 2006.

The seasonally adjusted results show 481,000 job vacancies in the UK for the period May to July 2010, up 9,000 (1.8 per cent) from the previous quarter and an increase of 51,000 (11.9 per cent) on the year. The analysis by industry shows that there were small changes in the estimates over the previous quarter in most sectors. The largest increase was 9,000 in the "wholesale & retail: repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles" sector. The largest fall (10,000) was in the education sector followed by "Public Admin & Defence; Compulsory Social Security" and "Human Health and Social Work Activities" (both down 4,000)
The overall impression of the jobs market in UK is that vacancies still exist in most sectors but much greater professionalism is required in the CV and what we call the project management of finding a new role. We note that several job boards no longer display the number of vacancies on their sites, which probably hides bad news and those that do are generally advertising numbers as much as 22% lower than in 2007.

The message from recruiters remains crystal clear; if you want us to hire you make absolutely sure that documents cover letters, completed questionnaires etc that form your application are 100% accurate and properly describe skill set, experience, aptitude for the job and style that makes it easy for a recruiter to recognize your value to a hiring organization. If there is any doubt about the quality of an application, then professional help should be sought which is both affordable and effective.



Perfect CVs specialise in support and advice for job seekers at all levels and in all industries. products include CV writing, web profiles, interview coaching and much more. Advice is free, Check out how to ensure your success in securing a new job at http://www.perfectcvs.co.uk


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