Britain has once again over-delivered in its quarterly employment figures. The ONS this week have reported that 32.6 million people were in work from October – December 2018 (75.8% of the total population): the highest recorded amount since employment records began in 1971.
The foremost reason for the further rise in employment numbers has been previously inactive workers entering or re-entering the work force, be they students, parents, long term sick or others.
How the work force reacts to a still-to-be-determined Brexit is unknown – these figures however do much to bolster both Governmental and Regional Employers’ and Councils’ confidence that the country is still a competitive environment to do business in, and for career growth.
Where average earnings rose to it’s highest rate since March 2011 it is worthy of note that compared to the same period in 2017, the UK actually had a drop in productivity by 0.2%, and wage growth was only +1% – half the rate of pre-2008 crash figures.
So all in all, confident but balanced viewing for Recruiters and Employers around the UK.
It would be the foolish recruiter who draws easy casual reasons for higher job vacancies as the job market continues to “grow” against the backdrop of a generation defining schism with the EU. The net loss of EU workers throughout 2017 and 2018 has, for some, explained why surplus candidate numbers have dropped – but today, CV library threw a curve ball into the debate.
The CV Library team today released figures saying that while there has a net loss of Eastern European/Baltic EU member worker numbers, there has been an increase in candidate interest and applications from the older, higher GDP EU members such as Germany and France.
January 2019 saw a quadrupling of candidate traffic from German applicants to UK jobs (+389%), while French applicant traffic grew 26.9%.
“Its clear that despite a drop-in traffic from certain locations, the UK is still an attractive location to live and work in: whether this is EU nationals seeking employment opportunities, or expats looking to move back to the UK,” commented CV-Library Managing Director John Salt.
How this move impacts the post-Brexit workforce remains to be seen, but it certainly adds another dimension to the our recent shifting jobs market.
