We’ve just published the Winter 2012/13 Evenbase Quarterly Recruitment Review of changing UK recruiter and jobseeker behaviour, which includes some interesting insights into how you are approaching the job market.
Key findings are:
- The average number of advertised vacancies rose to 7.8 per business, the highest figure of 2012
- Vacancy growth is being driven by SME businesses (50-249 employees)
- Almost two-thirds of vacancies are advertised online
- 76% of jobseekers now own a smartphone
- 50% now use social & business networks as part of the job search
It was good to see the uplift in vacancies in this latest research which we hope will bode well for 2013. There was a noticeable shift during 2012 towards temporary and contract roles, with these now accounting for 55% of the total.
There were also increasing signs that job seekers were using a combination of digital, social and mobile approaches in the hunt for new roles.
Digital
83% of you cite job boards as your most considered job search method…the highest figure since we started our research four years ago. The number using company websites as a way to keep tabs on new openings and developments was similarly high, showing digital routes to be by far the most popular. This is just as well as two-thirds of vacancies are now advertised online!
For businesses there was a rise in usage of newspaper ads – probably due in part to the increase in hiring by SMEs, who often favour more traditional mediums of recruitment advertising.
Social
Social and personal networks are now very much part of the job hunt. The latest research shows that 50% of jobseekers now use this route. Businesses also showed higher levels of using personal, social and business networks, again primarily driven by the desire of smaller SMEs to utilise a range of approaches to find new talent.
Mobile
Jobseekers love mobile! 76% of you now have a smartphone (up from 43% in February 2010) and nearly a third of you want mobile versions of job boards. 40% use their phones as part of the job hunt…with job ads, research on companies and location searches being the most popular activities.
Back in early 2010, almost exactly half of respondents said that they didn’t use their phones for watching sports, reading news, playing games or searching for jobs. That number is just 13% now, and even that may strike some of you as shockingly high!
What are Recruiters Doing?
Despite the increase in print advertising, businesses are still heavily using digital channels to advertise and search.
As we mentioned earlier, two-thirds of roles are advertised online and the two job board features that are most used by businesses continue to be advertising vacancies and CV searching. And the most desired job board feature strongly remains CV search – clearly underlining the need for job seekers to keep uploading their CVs to get found!
There does seem a slight disconnect between jobseekers and employers in terms of the tools and features that they need and desire from their online resources, so it will be interesting to watch how this develops during 2013.
Download our free Winter 2012-13 Evenbase Quarterly Recruitment Review for further insight and commentary on the changes in jobseeker and recruiter behaviour…and let us know how you are finding the market…
