HR market revealed: 13 recruitment stats grabbing HR and media attention

Context is key when it comes to positioning your HR brand. With this in mind, understanding top HR concerns and what the HR media are currently talking about is vital for those seeking to establish themselves within the HR niche. In this series, we’re uncovering the key stories that HR brands need to take note of right now.

The HR media loves a good statistic - any kind of data they can really sink their teeth into and use to educate HR audiences. 

But when it comes to recruitment, what stats are getting HR media interest right now? Here are 13 recruitment and labour market statistics grabbing HR and media attention.

13 Recruitment statistics impacting HR

1. Job vacancies have risen to their highest levels since records began, with an estimated 1,034,000 advertised job openings in the period between June and August 2021. During this time, vacancies rose by 35%.

2. Vacancies for both permanent and temporary roles have greatly increased with the former rising by 47% and the latter by 79.5% between September 2020 and the same period in 2021.

3. The number of people on payroll is near to reaching pre-pandemic levels. In March 2020, employment stood at 29 million - in the beginning of September 2021, it stood at 28.9 million.

4. With rising job vacancies, 88% percent of recruiters agree that labour shortages are a top concern as they move towards 2022.

5. Recruiters state that, in part, their concerns about filling job vacancies stem from a skills shortage among candidates. Over two-thirds of UK recruiters (65%) are worried about skills shortages.

6. Globally, over two-thirds of employers (69%) cannot find the skills they need to fill the roles available. Research from ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Survey shows that this is the biggest problem in India, Romania and Singapore where, retrospectively, 89%, 84%, and 84% of recruiters are reporting the largest problems with candidate skills gaps. 

7. In the UK, these problems mean it’s taking recruiters far longer to fill positions and 97% agree with this statement. Fifty percent also state that it takes longer than a month to place the right candidate in a role.

8. As a result of these issues, HR has increased their emphasis on training and upskilling workforces. A quarter of employers are planning to increase spend on upskilling programs and 21% of employers are looking to launch career coaching programmes within half a year.

9. Figures show that unemployment more negatively affects ethnic minority workers. ONS data shows that between April and June 2021, unemployment for ethnic minorities rose by 31% compared to an 11% increase for white employees.

10. Subsequently, the unemployment rate for ethnic minority workers grew three times quicker than that for white individuals during this time.

11. Searches for UK jobs by Europeans are slowly rising after steeply declining during the start of the pandemic when they were down by 79% in April 2020. Though still lower than pre-pandemic levels, the number of European workers seeking UK jobs is just 48% lower than pre-pandemic times.

12. Despite struggles to fill roles, over a third of job vacancies in the UK (35.5%) are displayed without revealing salary information. This means over 366,000 UK job adverts are not transparent about salary offerings.

13. Some job adverts are also under scrutiny for their part in discouraging women from applying for certain roles. Research shows that adverts containing masculine language see the number of female applications drop by 10%. Less than half of those applying for these kinds of job adverts (44%) are women. 

Looking for further expertise on key trends in the HR media? Download our HR Media Report 2021.