Recruitment Matters Issue 26 June 2014
Trade Association of the Year
Science salaries soaring, as graduate vacancies open up
The Intelligence 2-3 and REC Talk Wage direction and job application education
4-5
Driving growth
Pay is on the up but not in every industry
Wavebreak Media/Alamy
Job growth is on the up, but as we explore in this issue, the key questions are where exactly. A recovering graduate jobs market has helped push the number of advertised job vacancies up by a fifth over the last year, according to the latest UK Job Market Report from Adzuna.co.uk, and graduate vacancies grew a third yearon-year in April, as graduate recruiters picked up hiring. Salaries are also up 1.2% month-on-month across the UK, with the highest growth seen in Birmingham at 2.2%. A booming science sector has helped to support this monthon-month salary growth, with advertised science salaries rising 7.1% to £36,249 in the 12 months since April 2013. The growing trend for re-shoring manufacturing back to the UK has also driven a pick-up in demand in the manufacturing sector. Advertised manufacturing vacancies have increased 7.6% year-on-year in April, and salaries have increased 6.7% year-on-year. Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, explains: “The UK is re-establishing itself as a centre of science and technology, and many employers are on the lookout for new talent. But fresh blood in these sectors is
What’s inside
hard to come by. The science and technology sectors fell out of favour as subjects to study during the recession, which has led to something of a talent drought. Employers are competing to attract new workers, and are upping salaries to try and gain an edge over their competitors. “The recent media buzz around the proposed takeover of AstraZeneca has moved the spotlight back onto the pharma sector and the wider scientific circle, and could help encourage more aspiring highfliers to consider science as a career option,” Hunter says. On the other end of the scale, sectors continuing to hold back the salary recovery include the retail sector, in which advertised salaries fell 12.6% over the year to April to an average of £27,138.
However, the retail world has been particularly volatile recently, and retail salaries could be set to pick up soon. Future job market growth has to grow from the botom, something which the REC Youth Employment Charter strongly supports. Hunter adds: “The graduate market is growing as employer optimism blossoms. As competition for jobs continues to fall, employers are beginning to invest more and nurture talent from the bottom up – that can only be a good thing for graduates. “Initiatives such as the new engineering A level due to be introduced in September 2016 will help to encourage more of our youth to study subjects in which talent is particularly short – and provide a stream of future workers.”
6
The legal lowdown and Business Development
Pay deductions and UK-wide newspaper coverage
Institute of 7 Recruitment Professionals We speak to Resourcing Group’s Jason Bowler and Technology Resourcing’s Derek Brown
Best Events 8 The and Training The best speakers at the REC Talent and Recruitment Conference
www.rec.uk.com RM p1-JUNE-B.indd 27
03/06/2014 11:02