Since England’s exit from the World Cup, there has been a 23 percent increase in employment searches online, according to Experian Hitwise(1), the leading global online competitive intelligence service.
And, it seems the IT community has played its part in this trend. Reinforcing the Hitwise statistic, the UK’s largest IT jobs site, The IT Job Board, www.theitjobboard.co.uk, has undertaken its own research – analysing the two weeks pre- and post-England’s knockout against Germany(2).
Comparing the week before and after the match, the site saw an 18 percent increase in natural traffic, and a 10 percent rise in total site visits. Did the World Cup distract IT pros from their job searches? Or did they choose to just put their hunting on hold?
When it came to the all important CVs, there was a 20 percent increase in new CVs being uploaded to the site, and 25 percent of existing documents were updated.
Alex Farrell, managing director of The IT Job Board, commented: “Looking at the stats, it seems the World Cup acted as a real distraction from UK job searching; with the IT sector proving to be no exception.
“Our recent World Cup survey highlighted tournament fever was failing to distract UK IT departments, but this doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to IT pros’ job searches. Since the Germany match, The IT Job Board has seen a real increase in site visits, and in the number of CVs being uploaded and updated online. Perhaps an early bath for the team has stimulated movement in a traditionally sluggish summer period.”
1 Since England’s knock out, visit traffic to Banking (+23%), Travel Agencies (+11%) and Employment (+23%) have all increased.
2 England vs. Germany. Pre-week, 20-27 June; post-week (28 June – 04 July).
