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Regional Trends ReportSouth East

VACANCYSOFTB u s i n e s s I n t e l l i g e n c e t h r o u g h V a c a n c y D a t a

Contents

About the Data

Overview

Analysis by Profession

About APSCo

Analysis by Sector and Company Size

Analysis by Geography

About Vacancysoft

Roger TweedyDirector of Communications & Research APSCo

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We are delighted to be partnering with Vacancysoft to provide new, regional insight on activity in the professional recruitment sector.

This monthly report series presents a regional analysis of vacancy activity in the over the last two years, identifying key market trends. The series covers five regions across the UK.

I hope you find this new research of interest.

Every day Vacancysoft monitors careers centres on thousands of company web sites, and gathers links where there is change. These links are then classified automatically, and in the case of relevant content, by Vacancysoft staff.

Our final data set for this report contains information on 19 000 vacancies. The vacancies were all advertised within the South East region (following NUTS1 rules), and we initially found the vacancies between March 2014 and February 2016. Excluded from the data are vacancies from companies that were new to Vacancysoft in that period, and those for which we were not able to produce a consistent data set. We also excluded vacancies in professions that we have not continually tracked. This allows like-for-like comparison.

Overview

London aside, the South East is traditionally England’s busiest region in terms of professional vacancy numbers. While this is mostly fueled by the London-centric economy and demographics, in the past year a lot of the activity poured into regional cities relatively distant from the metropolitan area.

Vacancy growth periods in the past 24 months were similarly spaced within calendar years, recurring in January, June-July and October. Most recently, however, vacancy trends contradicted the seasonality patterns from previous years by steadily rising in February.

The February vacancy increase occurred primarily in the largest companies, those with over 5,000 employees. We observed many new vacancies posted in smaller companies in December and January, while their February increase was proportionately smaller. Organizations in both size categories are nevertheless on a hiring spree, which we expect to continue into March given behavior in previous years.

The busiest sectors in the South East were telecommunications and IT, each with almost twice as many vacancies as any other sector and together accounting for a third of all roles in the region. The legal sector appears among the top ten with 5% of all vacancies. This is unusual in our data as normally we expect this proportion to be lower. We can therefore conclude that the South East market has a higher saturation of law firms than other regions.

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Vacancy Volumesin South East England in the past 24 months

Vacancies in Different Company Sizesin South East England in the past 24 months

Vacancies by Sector

Vaca

ncy

volu

mes

800

1000

1200

200

400

600

MAR

AP

R M

AY

JUN

JU

L AU

G

SEP

OCT

N

OV

DEC JAN

FE

B

JAN

FE

B

MAR

AP

R M

AY

JUN

JU

L AU

G

SEP

OCT

N

OV

DEC

MAR

AP

R M

AY

JUN

JU

L AU

G

SEP

OCT

N

OV

DEC JAN

FE

B

JAN

FE

B

MAR

AP

R M

AY

JUN

JU

L AU

G

SEP

OCT

N

OV

DEC

20152014 20162015

700

800

200

100

300

400

500

600

Companies with Headcount over 5000

Companies with Headcount up to 5000

Vaca

ncie

s in

500

0+ c

ompa

nies

Vacancies in 1-5000 companies

160

180

200

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

Telecommunications

IT

Insurance

Ba

nki

ng

Ph

arm

ac

eu

tic

als

Law

Consulting

AccountancyTechnologyHardware

& Equipment

ClinicalResearch

OrganisationsOther

20152014 20162015

In early 2014, the telecoms sector was offering more vacancies than any other, and remained the busiest sector until mid-2015. After June it decreased to less than half of its 2014 volumes, with only a brief surge in October. January 2016 was the lowest point for telecoms recruitment in the last two years. However, an increase in activity occurred in February, and future analyses will tell if this will continue into March.

For most of 2015, vacancies in IT behaved quite differently than telecoms, with one seemingly filling the void after the other’s decrease. The most recent activity aligns with this, with steep, consistent growth in IT occurring since November while telecoms roles decreased. The sector is currently the busiest in the region, with significantly more vacancies advertised in February in IT than in any other sector.

A breakdown by company size reveals that major telecoms companies are the largest players in the region. IT companies of all sizes had high vacancy volumes and led the way among companies with headcounts below 5,000.

Clinical Research Organisations experienced the sharpest growth of all the major sectors in the South East. This can be narrowed down to hotspots in Reading and Marlow, where 67% of all CRO vacancies were advertised. While in absolute numbers they represent a smaller sector than the market leaders, their steep growth pattern makes them stand out in comparison to overall trends.

Analysis by Sector and Company Size

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Top Three Sectorsin South East England in the past 24 months

Top Sectors5000+ Companies

501 - 5000 Companies

Top Sectors in SMEs

CRO vs Overall Trendlines

Vaca

ncy

volu

mes

INSURANCE

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NO

V

DEC JAN

FEB

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NO

V

DEC

20152014 20162015

PHARMACEUTICALS

IT

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Number of Vacancies

Number of Vacancies

Number of Vacancies

IT

IT

LAW

LAW

ADVERTISING, DIGITAL & MEDIA AGENCIES

For SMEs we included companies with headcount between 1 and 500

InsuranceITTelecommunications

50

100

150

200

250

MAR

AP

R M

AY

JUN

JU

L AU

G

SEP

OCT

N

OV

DEC JAN

FE

B

JAN

FE

B

MAR

AP

R M

AY

JUN

JU

L AU

G

SEP

OCT

N

OV

DEC

20152014 20162015

South EastClinical Research Organisations

CRO

VAC

ANCI

ES

SOU

TH EAST O

VERALL VACANCIES5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

800

1000

1200

200

400

600

3500500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

800200 400 600

1000100 200 300 400 500 800 900

0

0

0

700600

Over a third (34%) of all vacancies in our data were for IT professionals, a proportion that was persistent over the entire analyzed period. In second and third place, sales and marketing specialists together covered 27% of roles.

Although IT roles accounted for the most vacancies, a higher proportional change was observed in both sales and marketing. By comparison, much more hiring is now occurring in HR, IT, Marketing and Sales than between the two years. Between yearly and recent change in trends, marketing vacancies did not significantly slow down and increase in demand for sales roles actually sped up.

The past year brought a surge in demand for science and HR roles, with the former growing by over 50% in number of advertised vacancies. This trend plummeted as fewer scientific roles were published in 2016 so far than in the traditionally quiet months of November and December last year.

Vacancies for IT specialists showed moderate but consistent growth patterns. The proportional increase in demand was not as pronounced as in sales roles due to IT’s higher initial vacancy volume.

Analysis by Profession

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Year-to-Year Trends in Top ProfessionsChange between Mar 2014-Feb 2015 and Mar 2015-Feb 2016

ACCOUNTANT

SALES

IT PROFESSIONAL

MARKETER/PR

HR PROFESSIONAL

SCIENTIST

60%10%

25%

0

Short-Term Trends in Top ProfessionsChange between Nov-Dec 2015 and Jan-Feb 2016

ACCOUNTANT

SCIENTIST

IT PROFESSIONAL

MARKETER/PR

HR PROFESSIONAL

SALES

30%5%-5% 0

Top 8 Professions

ACCOUNTANT

SCIENTIST

IT PROFESSIONAL

MARKETER/PR

HR PROFESSIONAL

BANKER

OTHER

LAWYER

SALES

20% 30% 40% 50%

20%15%10%

Most advertised vacancies were in areas directly west and south of London. The top area was Berkshire with more than twice as many vacancies as any other county in the region. Berkshire’s individual hotspots, Reading and Newbury, each contributed more roles than any other county save Surrey.

Telecoms vacancies accounted for 38% of all Berkshire roles, compared to 17% at regional level. The county’s other busy sectors included IT, with a 9% larger share of the market than regionally, and CROs, with 3% more vacancies.

Recently, the number of vacancies has been steadily decreasing in Newbury, which was the region’s top city in our data, and growing in Reading, the regions’ top city since last June. In February 2016, Milton Keynes jumped into second place. This is closely associated with sector-related trends, as Newbury’s top sector is telecoms, while IT and CROs account for over half of all Reading-based vacancies. Among the five fastest growing cities, only Maidenhead is in either of the top two counties. It was the South East’s large city with the most new vacancies and it grew by close to 70% between late 2015 and early 2016.

Other hot cities include Eastleigh (60% recent increase in our data) and Hook (48%). Together with 44% growth in Southampton, the Hampshire area is rapidly increasing its number of professional vacancies offered. A lot of this change has been in telecoms (44% recent growth) and insurance (150%).

Analysis by Geography

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Vacancy by County/Unitary Authority

Fastest Growing South East CitiesBetween Nov-Dec 2015 and Jan-Feb 2016

Vacancy by City

MAIDENHEAD

HENLEY-ON-THAMES

EASTLEIGH

HOOK

SOUTHAMPTON

70%10%0

5

7183

Ne

wb

ury

Reading

Gu

ildfo

rd

Milt

on

Key

ne

s

Bracknell

Maidenhead

Oxford

Bri

gh

ton

So

uth

am

pto

n

Ba

sin

gst

oke

Crawley

Eastleigh

Reigate

Ma

idst

on

e

Hook

Other

20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

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The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) was formed to give all firms involved in the recruitment of professional talent that have a commitment to excellence, the specialist support and distinctive voice they need to be successful. It gives candidates and employers a trusted badge of quality whilst providing member firms with an innovative range of services designed for them by recruitment experts.

These services, combined with its growing international profile, commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility and opportunities for professional networking give APSCo members a unique opportunity to develop their businesses and gain competitive advantage.

The distinctive voice of the professional recruitment sector

Expert support and events designed by recruitment experts

Recognised as a trusted badge of quality

An international profile with offices in London, Manchester, Frankfurt and Singapore

Representing members we respect in a profession we understand

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Tel: +44 (0) 8458 997 388Fax: +44 (0) 8458 997 389

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Tel: +(65) 6536 9495

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About Us• Launched in 2006, we provide Business Intelligence through Vacancy Data on subscription. • We publish vacancy data daily, tailored to your needs, so you can be informed of client activity.

• Primarily used by recruiters, our service enables consultants to have a rapid response when Organizations post jobs thus facilitating Business Development and Client Management.

• Our data sets are also used by Executive Search, Consulting Firms, Business Services and Strategy Managers to facilitate a more client centric approach.

For more information about us please contact James Chaplin by email: james.chaplin@vacancysoft.com

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• We configure an account for you with filters matching your needs. (So you decide which roles, sectors, locations you want to be kept informed about)

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