The art of interpreting signals (precursors of trends) is – and always has been – important in navigating financial markets and economies. If you are an experienced manager or executive who wants to manage their career and/or job search processes wisely, look at the signals of the job market which are inseparably embedded in the VUCA landscape of today’s world.
Before there are trends, there are signals which we usually keep to ourselves. But these are not usual times, so we decided to share those 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:
Number of published job ads on LinkedIn
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. Some local job portals are offering substantial discounts.
| Initial list of 18 countries | Sorted |
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| Extended list to 36 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:
Index18: Just as last week, the same 2 countries were the only ones that published more job ads in Week 28 than in Week 13: Poland & Ukraine.
Index36: 44,45% of the countries published more job ads in Week 28 than in Week 15. Compared to last Week 27 (50%), it’s a decrease of –5.55%, which brought the numbers back to the same level as in Week 26.
The European Union: Between Week 17 and 28, the EU countries altogether have seen an increase in the number of jobs ads (+3.11%). Compared to Week 27, though, it’s a decrease of -6.78%. Since last week, -263,763 job ads were taken off LinkedIn in the EU countries.
Winners of the week: The Baltic region noted the biggest positive difference between Week 15 and 28 (+13.66%)! The same comparison appointed another winner: Serbia, with a +38.52% increase in the number of published job ads. The country with the biggest % increase since last week was Portugal (+12.23%).
Losers of the week: For the last three weeks, Southern Europe has experienced the biggest decrease in the number of published job ads on LinkedIn out of all the regions. The reason – Italy and Spain are still among top 3 worst countries in Week 15 and Week 27 comparison (-39.33% and -35.65% respectively). The third accompanying losing country is Sweden which placed second to last in both rankings: -36.09% between Week 15 and 28, and -7.95% between Week 27 and 28 (outran only by Germany’s -11.70% decrease).
Collected Quotes from CEOs and HR Directors:
The vast majority of executives are with market leaders in their respective industries. By default, the board members are members of local boards; if not, we’ll indicate the exception.
Healthcare: The next step – going back to the office. We’ve been working remotely for the past few months and it probably won’t change for those cases that don’t require face to face meetings.
Telcom: We have actually noted gains ever since the pandemic started.
Big 4: Clients are hesitant to invest in business consulting as it’s costly and requires traveling, which is now limited. In consequence, it’s harder to reach our targets.
And candidate quotes:
Director / Insurance: I was laid off due to customer retention and difficulties in implementing the budget.
CFO / Retail: Thanks to contacting headhunters, I have recently been invited to 6 interviews in 2 weeks. Those recruitment processes have been unfrozen after a few months.
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.
If you want to contribute, email your signals to Sandra (everything will be kept confidential).
Market Signals published thus far:
Week 27
Week 26
Week 25
Week 24
Week 23
Week 22
Week 21
Week 20
Week 19
Week 18
Week 17
Week 16
Week 15
Week 14
Week 13
