2017 has seen a significant growth in the job market for the first quarter of the year with a survey from CV -Library highlighting this.
This survey found there has been a quarterly rise of 28.8% in job applications for the start of the year. Alongside this increase in job applications, vacancies and average salaries have also increased. Across the UK certain areas have seen more growth in job applications than others. Bristol has taken the lead and seen a rise of 39%, Cardiff 37% and Birmingham 36.4%. Workers are seemingly more prepared to leave their existing jobs without securing a better position first, as confidence that other work is out there remains high. Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library has gone on to say “It is fantastic to see the UK job market not only holding its own, but also expanding throughout the first quarter of the year. It is particularly promising to see a huge number of candidates in the UK actively looking for their next career challenge and with salaries seeing an impressive rise, the financial benefits of making a career move are clear to see.”

Whilst January is traditionally the start of the busiest time for recruitment, job applications in certain industries were significantly higher than last year. Manufacturing was up by 45.5%, automotive was up by 39.2% and construction was up by 38.3%. Average salaries have also seen an improvement with certain sectors benefiting more. Telecoms have seen increases of up to 8.7%, manufacturing by 5.5% and sales 3.4%. Overall average salaries have seen a rise of 1.3% year on year and 2.4% in comparison to the last quarter.