Our sister company Check-a-Salary, calculate average salaries for thousands of different job titles each day. Using the same set of data, we are able to examine the shifts in the top job titles advertised in the UK.

The top 20 jobs advertised has been fairly static over the last two years, with a few changes.

We are particularly interested to see the changes which have occurred since March 2020, where we have dived further into the data to look at the volume of jobs advertised on a per week basis.

Click the “play” button (you might need to scroll down slightly) to show how job volume has changed since May 2018.

As a lot of jobs adverts appear on multiple sites (the average is approx. 3 sites) we have identified duplicate jobs and only counted them once.

The effects of Covid-19 are extremely clear in the data. It is also very pleasing to see the start of the recovery in the job market, both from an employer and employee perspective.

Looking at the data for March to the end of May 2020 on a week by week basis shows a dramatic drop during March, but we are already seeing a recovering in the advertising of jobs.

One thing of particular note is the huge increase in Health Care Support Workers, highlighting the huge strain parts of the workforce were put under during the peak of the crisis.

Job volumes are still down from normal levels, but we are seeing a gradual, and in some cases, rapid increases in demand for certain job types.

A Few Thoughts On Where This Leaves Employers During The Recovery Stage

A challenge for employers has often been recruiting good people; currently many are unemployed through no fault of their own, especially in certain sectors (hospitality and transportation primarily).

Whilst staff are furloughed, this also opens up opportunities for people to consider other options.  However, some may see this as a greater risk over remaining in current employment and hoping to be asked to start working again.

So how do you convince some to take the risk? If business dries up again, for that employee, there wouldn’t be the safety of the furlough scheme, plus they potentially wouldn’t be entitled to redundancy pay which they would have been if they hadn’t joined.  Our advice is to market any job opportunity in a positive way, reflect your company culture, what sets you apart from other employers and that there is growth and long term stability within the company.

In sectors which are in high demand such as IT and healthcare, pay might need to increase. Others though are likely to see significant cuts. We are in the process of doing research into this and will be publishing a report on our sister site Check-a-Salary.