Latest statistics on Unemployment in the UK: June 2024

How do the latest statistics on the unemployment rate from the Office of National Statistics impact candidate sourcing?

The Office for National Statistics has released its June bulletin regarding the estimated unemployment levels in the UK between February and April 2024. The report reveals recent changes in employment levels, allowing businesses of any size to better understand the levels of skilled talent available within the current market.

Does this mean recruitment teams have more available candidates to choose from?

From the UK Candidate Attraction Report 2024, we can see that candidate scarcity is a common challenge noticed across various industries. It’s particularly affecting smaller companies more than large firms. According to the Office of National Statistics data, the period between February 2024 and April 2024 sees a rise in unemployment, which currently is at 4.4%, above estimates of a year ago, and increased in the latest quarter. This is the highest level of unemployment in the UK job market since 2021. This data from the Office of National Statistics highlights a growth in unemployment, which raises the question – will this create a new opportunity for recruitment teams to attract more talent and fill their vacancies?

5 industries struggling the most with candidate scarcity*:

1. Environment / Agriculture 73%
2. Construction / Infrastructure 72%
3. Energy / Utilities 72%
4. Government / Public Services & Administration 71%
5. Accountancy / Banking /Finance / Insurance 70%

Source: *UK Candidate Attraction Survey 2024

How can recruiters attract more skilled candidates for their vacancies?

 

Choosing the best-performing job board or social platform to advertise vacancies 

Focussing your time on the most effective sourcing channels is key when trying to maximise attracting candidates quickly. The UK Candidate Attraction report is dedicated to getting the details on this topic. Eploy carried out a survey on LinkedIn to gain insight into how recruitment professionals approach the use of job boards and social platforms when it comes to advertising vacancies.

More than half of respondents (53%) chose Indeed as the job board that delivers the best results, followed by LinkedIn Jobs (24%). Programmatic advertising was selected by (18%) and posting to job boards directly (6%) were chosen by the lowest number of survey participants (6%).

Other channels that attract skilled and high-quality candidates, according to the Candidate Attraction Report 2024, are Employee Referrals, PSL/Agencies, LinkedIn, Specialist Job boards and CRM/ATS/Talent Pools. Leveraging an Applicant Tracking System could help recruiters streamline their activities and manage any possible influx of applications due to the increased unemployment rate.

Optimising job postings with efficient tools

During Eploy’s customer webinar ‘’Improve Your Recruitment Advertising Skills with Eploy Adstore’’, it became clear that analysing and continuously improving your recruitment advertising skills across different platforms can bring great results. By regularly reviewing performance data, recruiters can better understand what social media and job advertisement platforms are best suited for their industry. Tools such as Eploy Adstore help recruitment teams achieve exactly that.

Why is it important to measure channel success?

Not all candidate sourcing channels deliver consistent results for candidate quantity and quality, and the UK Candidate Attraction 2024 report shows the channel differences. In all cases, the in-house teams who regularly measure channel effectiveness report improved candidate quality and increased numbers of applications. The biggest change can be spotted in the effectiveness of LinkedIn, which when measured right has the capacity to attract a large pool of highly skilled candidates. The performance of careers sites also grows in effectiveness when measured regularly. By taking the time to measure the results a sourcing channel delivers, recruitment teams can make improvements and further optimise their processes, leading to more time and cost savings when attracting the right candidates for the role. 

Further reading

To make it easier for in-house recruitment teams to be relevant and have up-to-date information, Eploy, alongside HR Grapevine, carries out an annual survey to determine the candidate sourcing channels and recruitment marketing techniques that deliver the best results. This year it included responses from over 700 recruiters. The collated data has revealed many key findings that could affect your recruitment practices and recruitment marketing techniques, allowing you to attract the best talent most effectively. Make sure you download your copy today: UK Candidate Attraction Report 2024.

Utilising recruitment technology for streamlined recruitment

To see how Eploy’s ATS is the smarter way to manage your recruitment, book a demo with our team, and see all the ways Eploy can help streamline your recruitment operations.