Today (07/01/20) is the busiest day of the year for job applications in the UK, however, employers are slower to post new openings in January compared to other months.
This was discovered through Glassdoor research, which found that the recruiter site sees a 17 per cent increase in applications over January with this number spiking on the 7th of January.
The site also found that there are 8 per cent fewer jobs in January posted online meaning that “that employers may not be taking full advantage of the surge in job applications.” Glassdoor also believes that there may be more activity now as the uncertainty surrounding Brexit has lifted and so people have decided to start applying for jobs once again.
The heightened activity in January seems even larger when you compare it to the slow down of applications in November and December. In November last year, it was reported that economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the General Election had slowed down businesses hiring plans which led to a decrease in the number of vacancies advertised.
The joint KPMG and REC report states that November had the slowest demand for staff for over the past decade.
Joe Wiggins, director at Glassdoor, said:
2020 marks the start of a culture-first decade; job seekers are looking to work at companies whose values align with their own and whose mission they can get behind. To capitalise on the increased job seeker activity at the start of the year, employers must pay special attention to their employer brand and consider how they communicate their company culture in job adverts in order to stand out against their competitors.
In order to collate this data, Glassdoor analysed job applications started and new job openings posted on Glassdoor.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
