State of the UK Labor market – 2021 Overview

uk labor market

This article focuses on the online vacancies listed in 2021 in the United Kingdom. The data used for this UK labor market study is crawled from the web with the JobsPikr tool, a go-to source for job data. JobsPikr offers a current and historical overview of online vacancies, making it a valuable source of information and a unique analytical and acquisition tool for recruitment and staffing agencies, job boards, outplacement companies and research organisations. 

UK Labor Market – Key Highlights

 • Sales and Trading was experienced the largest movement, dropping by 1,49% 

• Customer Service Agent has taken the top profession spot over Nurse, reflecting strong growth in the Administration and Customer Service category

• There were 1.67% fewer jobs posted online in 2021 when compared with 2020

 • Nurse, Sales Manager and Trainee all peak in the number of posting during Q1 of 2021, after which they decline through to the end of Q2 • Large retail store chains including TESCO, Asda Stores and Sainsbury’s are in the top 5 direct employers by a number of online postings 

Market Share per Country

UK labor market study shows that England once again accounts for the vast majority of jobs posted in the UK with a 91,1% market share. Scotland and Wales saw marginal decreases while England and Northern Ireland gained 0,10% and 0,05% share of the labor market compared to 2017. The top 5 cities for open jobs were London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds.

Top Job Categories

The top job category for 2021 was Healthcare, with a substantial 12% of all online jobs posted. This was followed by Administration and Customer service, growing 0.5% over 2021. Information and Communication Technology takes the third-place medal with 10,3% of the market. Sales and Trading was the big mover and shaker in 2021, dropping by a relatively large 1,49% down to 9,3%. And, rather than an isolated case in a single quarter, this is the result of a downward trend since at least the third quarter of 2017. While most job categories tracked by Jobfeed change marginally in terms of percentage very few if any other, major category has shown such movement. The result is Sales and Trading drops from the second largest job category, to the fourth, shows UK labor market study.

Top Professions 

Customer Service Agent has taken the top spot over Nurse, reflecting strong growth in the Administration and Customer Service category, which is now second-largest by share of total unique jobs posted. This was followed by Nurses in second. While Nurses were either the top or tied-for-top profession class throughout 2020, it was overtaken by Customer Service Agent in every quarter of 2021. 

A trend has emerged among 3 of the 5 professions when comparing UK online job posting in 2020 and 2021. Nurse, Sales Manager and Trainee all peak in a number of posting during Q2 of 2017, after which they steadily decline through 2017. There is a marginal increase for Nurse and Sales Manager in Q1 or 2018 (Q2 for Trainee), however, the decline continues after this, albeit at a slower rate.

Top Direct Employers and Top Staffing Companies

There are no surprises in the top 5 direct employers, organisations that are directly looking to fill their own positions. Large retail store chains including TESCO, Asda Stores and Sainsbury’s feature in positions 1, 3 and 4 respectively. One of the world’s largest fast-food outlets, Pizza Hut, takes the second position. The top 5 staffing companies, those who list jobs on behalf of other organisations, features some of the biggest names in the industry. Hays takes the first spot for 2021, followed by Reed Specialist Recruitment in second and Page Group in third. It should be noted that this ranking is based upon the number of unique jobs recorded by the JobsPikr tool.

Full-time vs Part-time in UK Labor Market

The majority of UK jobs in this analysis require full-time (over 32 hours a week) workers, accounting for 91% of the market. This has dropped by 1,1% compared to 2021 and is a slow (yet persistent) shift that reflects in every quarter throughout 2021. 

While full-time employees make up over 90% of online job postings in the UK, this is significantly lower in mainland European countries such as The Netherlands, France and Germany, shows UK labor market study.

JobsPikr – Go-to-Source for UK Labor Market Insights

The data used for this article is provided by JobsPikr. It offers a current and historical overview of online vacancies, making it a valuable source of information and a unique analytical and acquisition tool for recruitment and staffing agencies, job boards, outplacement companies and research organisations. JobsPikr scrapes the Internet for new job data every day. The user-friendly JobsPikr tool makes it easy to accumulate for all jobs, produce analyses, and much more. 

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