UK businesses prepare for the September recruitment rush

Businesses across the UK are preparing for the September recruitment rush, with job numbers soaring in some of the UK’s key cities last month.

Businesses across the UK are preparing for the September recruitment rush, with job numbers soaring in some of the UK’s key cities last month. This is according to the latest statistics from CV-Library, which reveals Bristol (45.3 per cent), Sheffield (42.5 per cent) and Glasgow (37.8 per cent) are the top cities for job growth last month.

The data analysed the average number of jobs across key UK cities last month, and compared this with statistics from the same period last year. The nation as a whole witnessed an impressive increase in advertised vacancies of 10.7 per cent year-on-year, with the findings revealing that the top ten cities for job growth include:

Bristol – 45.3 per cent
Sheffield – 42.5 per cent
Glasgow – 37.8 per cent
Leeds – 34.4 per cent
Manchester – 33.2 per cent
Cardiff – 30.3 per cent
Southampton – 28.6 per cent
Birmingham – 27.3 per cent
Edinburgh – 27.1 per cent
Liverpool – 19.2 per cent

What’s more, some of the UK’s key industries also saw a strong growth in jobs last month, with plenty of great opportunities within social care (26.7 per cent) manufacturing (24.5 per cent) and accounting (16.9 per cent). Not only this, but construction (13.7 per cent), recruitment (13.5 per cent) and automotive (12.3 per cent) also saw impressive growth year-on-year.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, comments, ‘It’s clear that businesses are gearing up for the month ahead, with September traditionally being a busy time for recruitment. With recent graduates entering the workforce and September blues setting in as professionals return from their holidays, we often see an increase in those looking for their next exciting career opportunity. With so many key cities experiencing job growth, businesses will have to fight hard to stand out from their competitors and attract the most talented candidates to their business.’

Furthermore, it’s positive to see that businesses were not subject to the usual summer slowdown in candidate appetite, with job applications also increasing across many of the UK’s key locations. In fact, Scotland in particular saw strong growth when comparing month-on-month data, with Glasgow and Edinburgh increasing by 13.8 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively. Nottingham (8.3 per cent), Liverpool (3.4 per cent) and Brighton (2.3 per cent) also witnessed an increase in candidate appetite when comparing data with July 2017.

Biggins concludes, ‘While August is typically a quieter month for applications, it’s clear from our findings that candidate appetite is showing no signs of slowing down, which is positive news for UK businesses. We expect to see these numbers continue to grow throughout September which means that now is the perfect time to be looking for your next hire. Just be sure to do all you can to stand out from your competitors, especially in terms of writing an enticing job advert that’s going to attract the most talented and eager candidates to your vacancies!’

Further reading on recruitment

Owen Gough, SmallBusiness UK

Owen Gough

Owen was a reporter for Bonhill Group plc writing across the Smallbusiness.co.uk and Growthbusiness.co.uk titles before moving on to be a Digital Technology reporter for the Express.co.uk.

Related Topics

Recruitment