LinkedIn job ads – we’ve been keeping an eye on how their number changes since the beginning of the pandemic.
Full Week 4 Market Signals report showing winners: Southern Europe, Netherlands and Losers: DACH, Germany
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: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, Denmark, and Ukraine.
The European Union: In Week 4, the EU noted a -22.62% decrease: 880,197 fewer job ads were published than in the initial Week 15 of 2020. Since last week, it’s a +14.29% increase.
Winners of the week: When it comes to regions, the winning result of Week 4 belongs to Southern Europe: we observed an increase of +32.13% since last week. Country-wise, Netherlands is the winner with an increase of +50.85%.
Losers of the week: The lowest result out of all the regions this week was noted in DACH: a -47.79% decrease compared to the initial Week 15. Worst country result: Germany with a -53.47% decrease.
Collected Quotes from CEOs and HR Directors
Sustainability: We switched to remote and hybrid work and swapped live meetings to online ones. We had to adapt the way of conducting meetings and implement new technologies. So it was necessary to promote them and train the employees. Our communication has been more intense since then. When it comes to IT and VPN hardware, we were equipped before the pandemic. We also used government aid.
FMCG: 2020 was difficult business-wise: we noted a significant decrease in sales because of COVID-19. Apart from that we were forced to cut salaries and lay some people off.
Legal / Real Estate: I am only focused on my old clients as there are almost no new ones. The end of the year was not bad compared to January and I’m hopeful for February as well – the real estate industry has seen some issues lately, which means that I’m necessary. Unfortunately mostly to retrieve debt obligations.
Finance: It’s OK. We had some turbulence at the beginning of the pandemic, but we snapped back pretty quickly and started to “attack” the market. We reached our goals for 2020 and delivered an increase in sales compared to 2019. The company has been opening for eastern markets which is beneficial for the development of the team. I was able to promote a colleague, which was a great thing to do. Business-wise, 2020 was really good.
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 2020:
