LinkedIn job ads – we’ve been keeping an eye on how their number changes since the beginning of the pandemic.
Full Week 5 Market Signals report showing winners: Iberia, Spain and Losers: Benelux, Belgium
Market Signals – where do they come from?
We started by monitoring the number of LinkedIn job ads in 18 European countries in Week 13 of 2020 (mid-March) – and extended our observations to ultimately 38 countries in Europe since Week 15. This allows us to measure a KPI that gives quite a good feel of the overall trend on the global job market.
Career Angels analyze the collected figures and complement the quantitative data with detailed and personal statements & insights of CEOs, HR Directors, investors, board members, candidates and headhunters that we know personally. We observe if and what kind of trends there are to leverage them into better candidate management & more effective job search methods.
These are not usual times, so we decided to share our market signals by the end of each week. If the country / context is important, we’ll add them. Otherwise, we’ll keep it general for confidentiality.
This is not a full version of this week’s report. View the complete presentation here:
We’ve continued reaching out to CEOs, HR Directors, investors, board members and candidates that we know personally, to take the temperature. Below you’ll find their shortened quotes in no particular order.
However, we’ll start with a KPI that gives a quite good feel of the overall trend on the job market:
Market Signals – the number of LinkedIn job ads
Note: some job ads might have been taken off LinkedIn, not because the recruitment process was put on hold or canceled, but because they are costly, especially if you have dozens of them. A company might have wanted to simply cut costs and move to more cost effective alternatives. Local job portals are often offering substantial discounts.
| Initial list of 18 countries | Sorted |
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| Extended list to 38 countries | Sorted |
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Note: the numbers are collected at the beginning of each week, on Monday afternoon. In the full version of this week’s report you can find separate data for regions such as: Visegrad, Baltics, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Iberia, SEE, BENELUX, DACH, Western Europe and EU.
Worth mentioning
First, an overview of the indices:
Indices – number of LinkedIn job ads
Index18: This week, 6 countries published more LinkedIn job ads than in Week 13 of 2020: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Ukraine and Belgium.
The European Union: In Week 4, the EU noted a -28.59% decrease: 1,349,801 fewer LinkedIn job ads were published than in the initial Week 15 of 2020. Since last week, it’s a +1.24% increase.
Winners of the week: When it comes to regions, the winning result of Week 4 belongs to Iberia: we observed an increase of +21.56% since last week. Country-wise, Spain is the winner with an increase of +38.16%.
Losers of the week: The lowest result out of all the regions this week was noted in Benelux: a -9.01% decrease compared to the initial Week 15. Worst country result: Belgium with a -4.81% decrease.
Collected Quotes from CEOs and HR Directors
IT: COVID-19 definitely didn’t help, but didn’t influence us directly either. The only thing: it sped up our transformations. Looking at the rest of the group Europe though, there were mass lay-offs.
Premium cosmetics: The pandemic had no influence on our business thanks to our stable e-commerce. We are safe.
Building materials: Despite the pandemic, we were able to develop significantly and even invest. Business in full bloom.
Tourism: My 2020 looked like an MBA class in crisis management that I had to pass within a week.
Building materials: We are lucky to work in an industry that wasn’t directly affected by the pandemic. We are stable: no decrease & no increase. We managed to avoid lay-offs and cuts. 2021 should be stable as well.
Building materials: Because of the fact that we didn’t have detailed data from 2019, it was hard to do a proper estimate of 2020. Fortunately, restructuring allowed us to avoid lay-offs. We know that there were many in the industry.
Strategy consulting: Most of our projects were frozen and it’s been hard to plan and analyze anything for the future.
Investment fund: 2020 was intense. After a brief storm in the spring we had to act quickly to adapt to the new reality. Our workload increased, especially during the fist wave of the pandemic. We had to work out new strategies and secure our sources of funding. The good side: the digitalization process stepped up and that was very beneficial.
Tourism: It was a rally hard year. There were days when everything was going downhill and we were sure we wouldn’t survive. And although it’s no longer the case, we are in debt and supported by the government in 25%. So our 2020 challenges included: fighting to survive, motivating the team, keeping the clients and ensuring cashflow.
Useful observations & tips for candidates from one of our contacts
Head of Talent Acquisition / International public organization
Before CV-19, sometimes we’d have only 20 applicants for a post. Now, there’s a massive increase. For some roles it’s double the amount of candidates – for HR roles, even more! A recent posting received 50 applicants within 12 hours! I can see that online interviews are more stressful for candidates because of all the technical challenges. Consequently, their performance is different. The overall candidate experience is also different – not worse, just different.
I still see two struggles for now and beyond CV-19: to formulate proper remote working policies, and to design appropriate digital onboarding processes.
About the future: everything will depend on the success of developing a vaccine. However, there are definitely elements that are here to stay: remote work if physical presence is not required (it currently saves me 5 hours per week, 20 hours per month on commuting – why would I voluntarily want to go back?) and online interviews!
Tips for candidates:
- Cover the basics: our ATS “enforces” as complete applications as possible. Having said that, it still surprises me that approximately 30% of the candidates still don’t get the absolute basics right!
- Don’t apply to everything. Constant rejection affects your motivation. Keep applying to the job ads where you see a fit and don’t give up!
If you want to discuss your professional situation confidentially or if you are considering hiring Career Angels for support, contact Bichl.Sandra@CareerAngels.eu who will personally match you with the most appropriate consultant. For efficiency, add your CV and availability for a Skype call.
Want to contribute? Email your signals to Sandra (everything will be kept confidential).
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Market Signals published thus far:
In 2021:
In 2020:
