"The median number of applicants per vacancy across all skill levels have plummeted. For each low-skilled role, the number has fallen from 24 in Summer 2017 to 20, for medium-skilled roles from 19 to just 10, and for high-skilled vacancies from 8 to 6. Among the factors is the dramatic (95%) fall in net EU migration, which according to the latest official data, dropped to just 7,000 between Q1 2017 and Q1 2018, compared with 148,000 from the year before," the CIPD said in its Labour Market Outlook.
According to the report, the falling number of applicants per vacancy has resulted in the increasing number of hard-to-fill vacancies.
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"Among employers who currently have vacancies, 66% report that at least some of their vacancies are proving hard-to-fill, higher than in Spring 2018 (61%) and Spring 2017 (56%). Organisations with hard-to-fill vacancies report that the density of these vacancies is higher in their organisation now (40%) compared with three months ago (30%)," the CIPD added.
The research urges the government to step up investment in skills development and ensure that its post-Brexit immigration policy with regard to EU nationals will enable employers to "continue to recruit both low- and high-skilled EU migrants," given the projected rise in recruitment difficulties in the years ahead.
The outlook for the third quarter of 2018 is based on survey carried out among 2,001 employers across the country.
