While walking into the office last week, I couldn’t help but appreciate the local coffee shop’s efforts to decorate the windows ahead of Halloween.
The team had been told to create a display depicting things they find particularly frightening. As expected there were ghosts, skeletons and Frankenstein’s Monster. What I wasn’t expecting to see was the message: Job market (the scariest thing I could think of).
They might be right. If you look back at the past few years, the UK has faced rising inflation, a cost of living crisis, economic uncertainty and companies disappearing faster than biscuits during an Antidote brainstorm. All of those issues have undoubtedly impacted the jobs market, and we’re still only four years on from the UK government encouraging those in the struggling performing arts industry to retrain in cyber security.
What does the data say?
- The Recruitment & Employment Confederation found that UK wage growth is at its weakest since February 2021, while this month witnessed the fourth consecutive drop in permanent staff placements.
- According to Google Trends, searches for job vacancies are now 77% lower than they were at their peak in June 2005.
- Adzuna data highlights a widening gender pay gap in the UK, with women earning 65p for every pound earned by men.
I’d arguably need another ten blog posts to truly dive into why the jobs market is in its current state, but it’s important to consider things from both sides.
The candidate view
Previously, people mostly moved between roles in search of a promotion or higher pay. But that seemingly isn’t the key driver now. A global study has found candidates are instead driven more by work/life balance than pay, a true hangover from the pandemic.
So workers are looking for the perfect fit, with a clear flexible working policy, the ability to work from home and (heaven forbid) a passable coffee in the morning. This may well be one of the driving factors behind the slow down of the jobs market - people are less likely to leave their current role until they find what they deem to be the perfect opportunity. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves as some big businesses begin enforcing full-time office work once again.
The business perspective
It’s no secret that the UK is struggling with a skills gap - 62% of British companies say they’re facing a skills shortage, although this is a drop from over 70% in both 2022 and 2023. A recent study by recruitment firm Hays found this is particularly prevalent in the technology, banking and medical industries.
When you consider there are more coding languages than traditional languages, it’s no wonder it’s tough for tech companies to hire highly skilled workers. It’s easily visible in the marketing industry, with teams needing to stay on top of every social platform out there (I’m still waiting on the return of MySpace), either with in-house or externally sourced talent. It’s tough out there!
This skills challenge is clear even in the PR industry, as we’ve witnessed a move away from solely focusing on traditional disciplines towards the likes of data analysis and SEO. Long gone are the days where it was enough to be a good writer or confident enough on the phone to sell stories. At the heart of comms now is an in-depth understanding of the potential that data offers, the ability to use AI to supercharge storytelling, a comfort with data analysis and knowledge of broader digital skills, like SEO.
While the jobs market may remain on this shaky ground for a while, at Antidote we’re always keen to hear from the next potential stars of the team. So whether we’re actively recruiting or not, please do get in touch.
Come back for next week’s Your Weekly Antidote, another dose of data-driven news analysis on one of the biggest stories of the week from your favourite comms tech agency.
