Because of how we work when supporting our clients, we have a very unique “glimpse” into how over 5000 Executive Search companies and almost 20 000 decision makers react – the majority of which being located in Europe; and we collect and analyze how they respond; and we observe if and what kind of trends there are to leverage them into better career management & more effective job search methods.
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 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 the 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: This week, 4 countries published more job ads on LinkedIn than in Week 13: Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia and – for the first time – Germany.
Index36: 39% of the countries published more job ads in Week 35 than in Week 15, which is a +3% increase compared to last week. Since last week, 64% of the countries saw an increase in the number of published job ads.
The European Union: After a surprising decrease last week (the first in 7 weeks), the European Union noted a slight increase in the number of published job ads in Week 35. The difference between the initial Week 17 and this Week 35 was +0.18%.
Winners of the week: BENELUX experienced the most significant increase this week: +15.24% more job ads were published on LinkedIn in Week 35 than in Week 34. When it comes to countries, Bosnia & Herzegovina noted the best result in Week 35: +157.58% more job ads were published on LinkedIn than in initial Week 15. In absolute numbers, it’s 52 more job ads.
Losers of the week: In Week 35, Southern Europe was a region with the worst result compared to the initial Week 15: -35.60% less job ads were published on LinkedIn. After weeks of stability and even slight increases, Portugal was a country with the worst result in Week 35 compared to last Week 34: -23.04%.
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.
Banking: We’ve seen a decrease in sales and our company has been looking for savings, so the restructuring processes have recently started.
Oil & Gas: Because of a significant drop in the oil price caused by CV-19, we’ve experienced a significant slowdown and our budgets had to be cut.
Telcom: E-commerce has definitely been positively affected by CV-19. Many companies have noticed new possibilities and diversified their sales channels – e-Commerce became a norm rather than just an option. Even though the interest in online shopping dropped immediately after the lock-down, company owners still expect the same results.
Public: The CV-19 situation showed that we were not really prepared to work on-line. Our on-boarding processes were almost frozen and our normal functioning blocked. This pushed us to open new communication channels on social media.
Media & Publishing: The first quarter was very good. The second one terrible. And we’ll most probably hit our target for the third quarter – despite the summer break. Due to CV-19 we had to let go of 100+ employees – every single team was affected to make sure we deliver on savings. Our conversations with clients re-focused from mid-to-long term projects to short-term wins.
And a candidate quote:
Senior Representative for CZ / VC Fund: Business was not very intensive even before CV-19, but then since March it froze even more. In the beginning of 2020 I have been searching for more dynamic jobs and I’ve had several interviews, but no success. Since March, there’s been nothing. Now I’m starting to see some new leads for jobs, so things are picking up.
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 34
Week 33
Week 32
Week 31
Week 30
Week 29
Week 28
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
