The outlook for recruitment for Quarter 4

During quarter 3 of this year UK vacancies and salaries continued to increase; positive news for job seekers hunting for their next role going in to quarter 4. Quarter 3 summary:

• Employment growth in the quarter was strong again with unemployment at a rate of 4.3%, down 0.1% on last month and down 0.2% on last quarter.
• The ongoing search for talented employees has boosted the total UK advertised vacancies by 7.2% in the year to August 2017.
• Research by CV Library shows salaries have increased by 3.8% from September 2016 to the same period this year.
• Some of the industries seeing the largest salary increases in September included Hospitality (24.6), Automotive (7.8%), Retail (7.6%), Recruitment (3.8%) and Engineering (2.4%).
• Despite all positive employment and economic activity, current inflation rate and real wages declined by 0.4% meaning that overall, UK workers are becoming worse-off.

Going into quarter 4, advertised vacancies will continue to bloom however, we predict that UK businesses will begin to find it increasingly more difficult to recruit skilled staff for professional roles like banking, engineering and construction as a result of a fall in talent flow following Brexit. Attracting skilled workers from overseas remains key to boosting UK output, as well as filling new roles that will drive the economy forward.