WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT YOUR LABOUR SHORTAGE?

March 17, 2023

Hiring? We bet you are. We bet you’ve got more than one vacancy that’s been languishing, open and lonely, with little to no interest from applicants. Have you spent countless hours wondering what you’re doing wrong? Or debating with colleagues why your application inbox is barren and how much more money you’ll need to throw at your Job Board?

It might not shock you that the disparity between vacancies and hiring rates is now at a record high, with applicants less willing to search outside their general employment area. So how do we change this? Think of the economy's growth if we could entice applicants to step out of their comfort zone and take a risk. Pretty soon, we’d end up with a busy, bustling cross-skilled workforce ready to take on anything thrown at it.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the state of the Uk labour market at the moment:-

  • The total number of people employed is around 250,000 people below pre-pandemic levels. Re-entering the workforce has stalled in the last quarter.
  • Job-finding rates from unemployment, employment, and inactivity are at a record high. This has slowed down in the last quarter due to the global energy crisis. Does this mean the Great Resignation might be coming to an end?
  • Aggregate Vacancies continue to fall and are 43% above their pre-pandemic level, slightly down from an all-time high a few quarters earlier. High vacancies are a source of the labour shortages plaguing the economy, and the Vacancy Filling Rate is now lower than before the pandemic. The economy is far off its usual Beveridge Curve but is starting to return.
  • Unemployment is starting to rise, increasing the risk of losing your job.
  • Fewer workers are changing industries or seeking employment outside their known occupation when they move jobs.
  • During the pandemic, the rate at which people changed industries or occupations was high. This is now returning to its normal level. During the pandemic, when mobility was high, it meant that some industries were growing by taking workers from other industries that were shrinking (i.e. Lots of poaching)
  • This means as our economy settles, we see a new composition of occupations and industries, with some sectors dramatically reduced. Manufacturing, retail and construction have shrunk whilst skill service occupations grew. 
  • Here we see that labour shortages in certain industries become a problem, and the question emerges: How can we encourage workers to apply for positions outside their comfort zone?

From this, it’s clear our ways of hiring need to change. It’s important to realise that hiring with a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. The good news is that there’s an easy way to ensure your job ads comply with DE&I and appeal to everyone. Get-Optimal’s solution! Moreover, we optimise readability, SEO and EVP (employer brand proposition) to ensure your ad appeals to everyone, everywhere, all the time. We use millions of data points and remove opinions and any and all subjective bias.

About Get Optimal

Work with us at Optimal, and your response rate for open positions will soar by a minimum of 24%. Let our AI choose the most readable parts of your job ads to display, and you’ll save the precious time you would have spent combing through old or plagiarised job ads to ensure you’re conveying the correct image in the new world of attracting suitable and diverse candidates. No longer will applicants be put off by the vacancy or how it’s been advertised. Optimise once and post in multiple places - your new ad is provided in a downloadable, editable form to drop in to whichever job board or multi-poster you like!

We are also integrated with Bullhorn and Salesforce. We ensure your ad is Diversity & Inclusion compliant, meaning you’ll be the top choice commercially and win business over other, less enlightened competitors.‍

Ready to join forces? Why not book your demo today and get started with Get-Optimal?

Work Cited

“Labour Market Snapshot.” COVID Jobs Research UK, https://covidjobsresearch.co.uk/labour-market-snapshot/. Accessed 17 March 2023.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT YOUR LABOUR SHORTAGE?

March 17, 2023
Download Case Study

Hiring? We bet you are. We bet you’ve got more than one vacancy that’s been languishing, open and lonely, with little to no interest from applicants. Have you spent countless hours wondering what you’re doing wrong? Or debating with colleagues why your application inbox is barren and how much more money you’ll need to throw at your Job Board?

It might not shock you that the disparity between vacancies and hiring rates is now at a record high, with applicants less willing to search outside their general employment area. So how do we change this? Think of the economy's growth if we could entice applicants to step out of their comfort zone and take a risk. Pretty soon, we’d end up with a busy, bustling cross-skilled workforce ready to take on anything thrown at it.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the state of the Uk labour market at the moment:-

  • The total number of people employed is around 250,000 people below pre-pandemic levels. Re-entering the workforce has stalled in the last quarter.
  • Job-finding rates from unemployment, employment, and inactivity are at a record high. This has slowed down in the last quarter due to the global energy crisis. Does this mean the Great Resignation might be coming to an end?
  • Aggregate Vacancies continue to fall and are 43% above their pre-pandemic level, slightly down from an all-time high a few quarters earlier. High vacancies are a source of the labour shortages plaguing the economy, and the Vacancy Filling Rate is now lower than before the pandemic. The economy is far off its usual Beveridge Curve but is starting to return.
  • Unemployment is starting to rise, increasing the risk of losing your job.
  • Fewer workers are changing industries or seeking employment outside their known occupation when they move jobs.
  • During the pandemic, the rate at which people changed industries or occupations was high. This is now returning to its normal level. During the pandemic, when mobility was high, it meant that some industries were growing by taking workers from other industries that were shrinking (i.e. Lots of poaching)
  • This means as our economy settles, we see a new composition of occupations and industries, with some sectors dramatically reduced. Manufacturing, retail and construction have shrunk whilst skill service occupations grew. 
  • Here we see that labour shortages in certain industries become a problem, and the question emerges: How can we encourage workers to apply for positions outside their comfort zone?

From this, it’s clear our ways of hiring need to change. It’s important to realise that hiring with a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. The good news is that there’s an easy way to ensure your job ads comply with DE&I and appeal to everyone. Get-Optimal’s solution! Moreover, we optimise readability, SEO and EVP (employer brand proposition) to ensure your ad appeals to everyone, everywhere, all the time. We use millions of data points and remove opinions and any and all subjective bias.

About Get Optimal

Work with us at Optimal, and your response rate for open positions will soar by a minimum of 24%. Let our AI choose the most readable parts of your job ads to display, and you’ll save the precious time you would have spent combing through old or plagiarised job ads to ensure you’re conveying the correct image in the new world of attracting suitable and diverse candidates. No longer will applicants be put off by the vacancy or how it’s been advertised. Optimise once and post in multiple places - your new ad is provided in a downloadable, editable form to drop in to whichever job board or multi-poster you like!

We are also integrated with Bullhorn and Salesforce. We ensure your ad is Diversity & Inclusion compliant, meaning you’ll be the top choice commercially and win business over other, less enlightened competitors.‍

Ready to join forces? Why not book your demo today and get started with Get-Optimal?

Work Cited

“Labour Market Snapshot.” COVID Jobs Research UK, https://covidjobsresearch.co.uk/labour-market-snapshot/. Accessed 17 March 2023.