‘Make the most of staff you have got with longer office hours’

The latest UK Job Market Report from Adzuna.co.uk, a search engine for job ads, shows Yorkshire is lagging behind much of the rest of the country with the region’s workers being offered advertised salaries of £29,885 a year compared with London salaries of £39,815 and a UK average of £33,318. In England only the North East and East Midlands fare worse than Yorkshire.

The average salary in Yorkshire has fallen two per cent from £30,558 last year.

The worst five cities to find a job are Sunderland, Hull, Bradford, Belfast and Wolverhampton. In Hull there are 3.05 job seekers per vacancy and in Bradford there are 3.04. Only Sunderland workers were less lucky with 4.01 job seekers per vacancy.

The reported highlighted a strong North/South divide with the best cities to find jobs including Cambridge (0.09 seekers per vacancy), Guildford (0.10), Oxford (0.13), Reading (0.15) and Winchester (0.20).

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said job seekers in Sunderland, Hull and Bradford should consider moving for work.

“For many job seekers, the solution to finding employment is increased mobility, but the traditional migration from North to South needs to be broadened,” he said.

“Flexibility is emerging as a key requirement. With the arrival of Crossrail in the future and ever-extending transport networks set to benefit all regions of the country, migrating to a different city could be the proactive approach to securing work.”

The situation in Yorkshire is a far cry from the rest of the country where three-quarters of UK cities struggle to fill advertised vacancies.

Adzuna said that 41 out of the top 56 UK cities don’t have enough applicants to fill advertised roles. A year ago only 27 cities lacked enough job seekers to fill available positions.

The research showed that advertised vacancies are increasing steadily, as seasonal roles and graduate jobs flood the market.

There were 1,178,129 vacancies in September, 2.4 per cent higher than August’s figures and up 30.0 per cent compared with twelve months ago.

The number of job seekers has fallen to 685,456, marking the first time since the recession this figure has dropped under 700,000.

More workers are entering part-time and temporary jobs, while some job seekers are looking to self-employment for a regular income, further depleting the number of job hunters on the look out for permanent positions.

As a result, job competition has fallen to a post-recession record low of 0.58 applicants per vacancy, down 6.9 per cent from 0.62 in August and 43.1 per cent from 1.02 job seekers in September 2014. Data from the ONS shows the UK unemployment rate is at its lowest level since 2008, falling to 5.4 per cent in September.

“Job competition has fallen to its lowest level since the recession, which should spell good news for those searching for work,” said Mr Hunter.

“But despite the number of positions growing with a new vigour, the significant skills shortage within the labour force means vacancies are increasingly being left empty. Many cities don’t have enough home-grown talent to fill new positions, meaning companies are increasingly relying on workers from elsewhere in the UK as well as from overseas.”

He said that one solution to the talent drought would be to increase the productivity of workers.

“After the recession bit, many job seekers took up part-time roles or ventured into self-employment – meaning much of our workforce is operating at less-than-full capacity,” he said.

Adzuna suggests that one solution to the workforce operating at less-than-full capacity is for employees to stay in the office longer.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: “Clocking in and out may become a thing of the past.

“Higher investment in the latest technologies and infrastructure will also help employers to maximise the output of exiting talent. Retraining staff will play a key part in improving productivity too.”

The research showed that wages for those in work are rising.

“Employers are recognising the difficulty in recruiting top talent, and are raising the salaries of existing staff to help increase employee retention,” said Mr Hunter.