Sunday, February 16 2025

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NEWS

NEWS

Lockdown lag still Grips

New data from LinkedIn finds that the UK labour market is starting to rebound, but the rate is uneven across industries and lags behind European counterparts.

The first week of eased lockdown restrictions saw hiring in the UK climb to -31%, compared to this time last year. Whilst the hiring rate is still negative, it is a significant improvement from the -49% registered around a month ago. At the industry level, the data shows that most UK industries have improved from the deep declines seen a few weeks ago, but the rate of recovery is uneven.

While hiring levels across all industries remain down on last year, over the last two weeks:

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  • Legal, Software & IT Services and Corporate Services have seen the strongest rebound in hiring. These industries are now trending at -16/17% YoY. While still negative they are above the national hiring rate.
  • While showing some signs of improvement, Media & Communications (-38%), Construction (-38%), Manufacturing (-41%) and Recreation & Travel (-66%) remain negative and are trending below the national average.
  • Despite the easing of lockdown restrictions, hiring in Retail (-34%) and Entertainment (-51%) showed no improvement in hiring over the last two weeks, and are still below the national average.

The data also shows the UK labour market performance comparative to its European counterparts. It reveals that hiring in countries like Italy and France – which experienced steeper hiring declines and fell to as much as -60/70% in mid-April – are now trending above the UK.

Adam Hawkins, Head of Search & Staffing, LinkedIn, said: “It’s encouraging to see the UK labour market show gradual signs of recovery one week after lockdown restrictions have eased, particularly after the deep declines we saw a few weeks ago. This will be welcome news to recruiters who are playing a crucial role in restarting the economy. However, there is still some way to go before things get back on track. Hiring is still negative, particularly amongst Recreation & Travel, Entertainment, and Manufacturing, and the UK continues to lag behind its European counterparts. While there is inevitably more turbulence ahead, we hope to see hiring pick-up as lockdown measures continue to lift.”

Global labour market rebounding, with France and Singapore returning to growth

New data from LinkedIn also finds that global hiring rates are stabilising and even recovering in certain countries over the past 6 weeks, in contrast to the sharp declines globally in early to mid-March through April.

China and Singapore’s hiring rates are now firmly above 0% year-over-year, both reaching around 11% year-over-year on June 17.

Singapore and France are showing the greatest recovery since the start of June, with Education recovering fastest in Singapore and Healthcare and Real Estate recovering fastest in France.

Australia, United States, United Kingdom, and Brazil are stable and showing upticks since the start of June.

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Newsdesk
Newsdesk
The Global Recruiter Newsdesk bringing you balanced journalism, accuracy, news and features for all involved in the business of recruitment from around the world

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