Competition for finance jobs intensifies, as applications soar by 49.5%
The latest job market report from CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job board, reveals that applications for finance jobs soared in June, rising by a massive 49.5% compared to the previous month and by 1.7% year-on-year.
The job board analysed its data from June 2020 and compared the findings with May 2020 and June 2019 to see how the job market is fairing right now. It reveals that there were 184.2% more applicants battling it out for every job than there was a year ago (40.6 applications per job, compared to 14.28 in June 2019).
This is despite pay dropping by 6.9% month-on-month; falling from an average of £41,180 in the finance sector in May 2020, to £38,331 in June 2020.
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, comments on the findings: “The rise in applications will be welcome news to organisations that have struggled to source top talent in recent years. However, the sad reality is that hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to look for a new role because of the pandemic. Competition for these jobs is intensifying and businesses need to be sensitive of the situation and remember that employer branding is still important. Try to give constructive feedback, communicate your hiring timeline and be as honest and open as possible with candidates.”
CV-Library’s data also reveals that while job numbers in the finance sector are slowly picking back up month-on-month, increasing by 40.8% in June, they are still 64.2% lower than they were a year ago.
Biggins continues: “As lockdown restrictions started to ease in June, we saw a number of different industries return to the workplace and this helped to instil confidence back into businesses. However, we still have a long way to go until job numbers return to normal levels. The fact that average salaries have dropped isn’t overly surprising, particularly as many organisations have struggled with their breakeven point during the pandemic. While most professionals still say that salary is the most important factor to them when looking for a new role, we’re also seeing that more workers want flexibility and job security too. As we can see from our data, lower wages certainly aren’t putting people off applying, but businesses will need to accommodate to their changing needs.”
