An analysis of Indeed’s jobs data shows a more positive picture of the labour market in October, following a slowdown across almost all sectors in the past few months.
The IT and Retail sectors experienced the strongest growth, each showing a 5% increase in job postings compared to September, with 120,463 and 154,907 available roles respectively last month.
In the IT industry, Graphic Designer emerges as the top job title, with 40,352 open roles. Interestingly, ‘graphic designer’ is also the top search term amongst jobseekers in this sector – a surprising and positive alignment between employer demand and jobseeker interest in this key sector of the UK economy. Alongside Graphic Designers, there has been a generalised growth in roles which require a combination of technical ability and creativity. This comes as the job market continues to shift to accommodate the digital economy and the impact of automation on more traditional technical roles. This changing relationship between jobs and technology was highlighted recently in the Bank of England’s report, pointing to a reshaping of the workforce.
The October figures also reflect some seasonal patterns. Within the retail sector, “Christmas Customer Assistant” features as one of the top ten most popular jobs amongst jobseekers in October. This short term boost is evidenced by recent statistics from large retailers such as Debenhams and Tesco, which are each appointing large numbers of temporary staff over the festive period. It’s clear from our data that jobseekers are attuned to this opportunity, with 96,458 searches for “Christmas” and 77,599 for “part time retail”. Meanwhile, the month-on-month decreases in the volume of job postings in Construction and Transportation signals the start of the recurring annual slowdown in activity usually associated with the winter months.
“Although timid, the increase in job postings registered on Indeed in October is encouraging, especially when it comes after the negative month-on-month growth we witnessed in August and September,“ explained Mariano Mamertino, economic research analyst at Indeed.
He continued, “However, the increase in job postings volumes may still not be enough to offset the dips reported in the previous two months, and we can still expect a somewhat weaker labour market outlook in the months to come. These expectations are supported by broader economic indicators showing retail sales in the UK falling 0.9%in October - the worst reading in 12 months - and wage growth slowing down in the three months to September - while still remaining subdued compared with pre-recession era levels.”