Rebuilding Britain – the importance of strong construction and engineering markets

Following a record week of hiring at the beginning of June, vacancies dropped slightly last week, down 3% across the UK, while London reported the greatest growth in the number of jobs advertised. Of those sectors still recruiting, construction and engineering noted the greatest week-on-week increase. That’s according to the latest real-time statistics.

Vacancies down, but not out

While the decline in overall vacancies dampens the initial optimism noted as some businesses re-opened at the beginning of the month, the week ending 14^th June still reported the second highest number of weekly vacancies since the beginning of April. This is indicative of the increased demand for staff as more companies attempt to get back on track as lockdown restrictions ease.

London reported the greatest uptick in new vacancies, with 37% of all new jobs added last week based in the capital. This rise is perhaps unsurprising as more London firms seek more staff to fill resourcing gaps where employees are unavailable to return to work.

Construction and engineering bolstering UK vacancies

According to Broadbean Technology’s data, construction and engineering reported some of the biggest increases in new vacancies week-on-week, up 16% and 10% respectively. Of all new roles added during this period, the two sectors accounted for 29% of the UK’s hiring. This is in line with reports from Build UK which revealed at the end of May that 86% of construction sites in the country had reopened, with more planning to follow suit. With the sector already noting a skills shortage prior to Covid-19, this dearth of talent has been exacerbated by the number of staff unable to return to sites, pushing demand for new hires up.

Alex Fourlis, Managing Director at Broadbean Technology commented: “While there has been a slight dip in vacancies across the UK, the fact that numbers remain towards the top level of figures reported since lockdown began is reassuring. There will be peaks and troughs of hiring as organisations begin reopening and find themselves in need of new staff due to those lost to the business in recent months and any unable to return to work. For sectors like construction and engineering, we expect to see a continued growth in demand for employees as businesses increasingly struggle to get enough people on-site to meet the growing demand.”

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