Despite gloomy predictions for 2009 in the recruitment sector and many of the industry’s main players struggling, the Simply Jobs Boards have recorded their best year to date.

Simply Jobs Boards, who operate 15 niche jobs sites including SimplySalesJobs.co.uk, SimplyMarketingJobs.co.uk and AviationJobSearch.com, posted a profit level 24% up Y-O-Y

Ian Partington, managing director of Simply Jobs Boards, said: “Whilst many in the industry were preparing for the worst, we decided to remain positive and take the challenge head-on.

“Instead of shrinking the business, we actually grew it, with the acquisition of three niche aviation jobs boards – AircraftEngineers.com, AircraftPilots.com and CabinCrew.com.

“Whilst results across all sites exceeded our expectations, we saw particular growth in the areas of Travel, Law, Sales and Marketing.”

According to the online research body Hitwise, all of the sites increased their market share against the competitor jobs boards.

Ian continued: “Off the back of this success we have this year been able to increase our sales and marketing teams to ensure we maintain growth and we have some exciting new technical developments in the pipeline that will further improve our offerings. We are also looking to acquire jobs boards that will complement our current portfolio, and there are plans in place to launch new job boards in late spring”

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Graduates looking for work in Britain will find it harder to get a job than their counterparts in Australia or South Africa, a new report published today has revealed.

Around 49 job seekers currently go for every vacancy in the UK, compared to 43 in Australia and 40 in South Africa.

The report, published by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) also found that the average number of vacancies per employer in the UK stands at 20, compared to 10 in Hong Kong, 13 in Australia, 24 in South Africa and 108 in the US.

The average UK graduate salary currently stands at £25,000 which is lower than Australia, Canada, America and Hong Kong.

The Ingrada (International Network of Graduate Recruitment and Development Associations) Global Graduate survey is based on the results of surveys and market knowledge from six countries, covering offer acceptance, vacancy and application rates, graduate figures of hiring costs, acceptance and retention rates.

The survey stretches across the globe covering the UK, Hong Kong, Canada, America, South Africa, Australia and Canada.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of AGR, said: ‘The political, economic and cultural environment in which organisations recruit and develop graduates is becoming increasingly global.

“We believe that the international partnerships we have forged through Ingrada will benefit our growing membership’.’

Press Association

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A year in the online recruitment industry

It is fair to say that the last 12 months has been one of the hardest years to operate a business since the depression in the 30’s and the online recruitment industry has been particularly hit hard as unemployment has soared to almost 3 million.

As the indications are that the worst of the recession could be over I have been looking at why Simply Jobs Boards has seen an increase in revenues since May 09, widely considered to be the peak of the recession, even though unemployment continues to rise and I have written this report to outline my findings.

Overall position

Overall traffic levels Y-O-Y have increased this year.  This is not purely down to the increase in jobseekers, although this will undoubtedly have helped, I believe it is partly down the ‘the survival of the fittest’.  Our Hitwise market share across all sites but one has increased dramatically this year, with the best site increasing share by 41%.  Some of this increase is down to competitors moving out of the markets we operate.

As of September 2009 the Y-O-Y number of jobs being advertised on our sites has reduced by an average of 50% except for Simply Law which has seen an increase of 7% Y-O-Y.  The positive point across all sites is that the amount of jobs being advertised is growing healthily in the period Jul-Sept, even the sites that have shown a traditional decline, and this decline it is not to the extent of last year.

The number of job applications is perhaps predictably up, on some sites by as much as 150%

Breakdown

Aviationjobsearch.com

Traffic – Up 10%
Hitwise share  – Up 22%

Careersinrecruitment.com

Traffic – Up 15%
Hitwise share  – Up 21%

Inautomotive.com

Traffic – Up 18%
Hitwise share  – Up 41%

Simplyhrjobs.co.uk

Traffic – Up 19%
Hitwise share  – Up 10%

Simplylawjobs.com

Traffic – Up 22%
Hitwise share  – Up 6%

Simplymarketingjobs.co.uk

Traffic – Up 10%
Hitwise share  – Same

Simplysalesjobs.co.uk

Traffic – Same%
Hitwise share  – Up 11%

Traveljobsearch.com

Traffic – Same%
Hitwise share  – Up 18%

In summing up I think that the reason why our business has started to do better is down to a number of positive factors:

• Confidence coming back into the market  – companies are happier to sign off longer term deals
• They are happy to sign these longer deals on all sites because they deliver results due to our increased market share
• We have a good team of sales people who are driving high levels of new business in a difficult market

Here’s to a good finish to 2009 and a much better 2010

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A third of the Vauxhall workforce faces being axed by the car-maker’s new owners.

Leaked figures show job cuts at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port and Luton factories will be at nearly twice the rate of those at German sister company Opel, where just one in every six car workers may lose their job.

Vauxhall is set to lose 1,375 jobs – nearly 31 per cent of workers – by 2011. By contrast, job cuts at Germany’s four Opel factories will hit 16.6 per cent of staff – a drop of 4,116 to 20,584.

The cuts follow the £600million sale of Vauxhall and its German sibling Opel to a consortium led by Canadian car-parts firm Magna, which has links to Oleg Deripaska.

Russia’s richest man is described as the firm’s ‘industrial backer’, and he is a friend of Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary.

Previously Magna had suggested that the UK would share job losses ‘pro rata’ with a 20 per cent reduction in workers.

The Magna deal was done after German Chancellor Angela Merkel put up a £4.5billion loan to ensure its success just weeks before her nation’s general election this Sunday.

Furious unions say Britain was the victim of a German ’stitch up’ and are concerned that Lord Mandelson – who backed the Magna deal – failed to do enough to protect British interests.

They want meetings with the Business Secretary and bosses of Magna, which bought Vauxhall and Opel from U.S. giant General Motors.

Tony Woodley, of transport union Unite, said Magna’s plans would safeguard Opel ‘while running down the UK operation’.

But Magna said it was committed to Britain and to the retention of the Vauxhall name.

A spokesman for Lord Mandelson’s department said: ‘We have had assurances from Magna that Ellesmere Port and Luton will remain open for the foreseeable future.’

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Monster’s employment indices for July suggest that levels of online recruitment activity are beginning to stabilise in the UK and parts of western Europe.  The UK index held steady at 110, while the European index declined by a single point to 101.

Apart from a modest one-off increase in February, the UK index has now remained relatively static for the whole of 2009 to date, shifting not more than a couple of points in either direction from month to month.  The hope is that the sharp decline experienced in the latter part of last year has now bottomed out.

July saw increased activity in sectors such as transport, post & logistics and production/manufacturing/maintenance/repair, while legal and healthcare/social work also rebounded strongly.  More modest increases were experienced in sales, the public sector, HR, engineering and arts/entertainment/sports/leisure, with even construction & extraction managing to put on a couple of points.  At the opposite end of the scale, demand in the management & consulting category fell away by nineteen points.

The regional picture was mixed: Northern Ireland proved to be the best performer, four points ahead for the month, while Scotland, the North, the Midlands, London and the South East all registered more modest gains.  East Anglia, Wales and the South West experienced declines of three, four and six points respectively.

“It is encouraging that overall online job demand has stabilised and that recruiting in the goods-producing sector is picking up, but there is still little indication that hiring has resumed in the much larger service sector,” commented Hugo Sellert, Monster Worldwide’s head of economic research.  “The UK economy’s sustained contraction in the second quarter means labour market conditions will remain challenging in the foreseeable future.  Competition for top talent is still fierce, however, as companies seek to attract the most qualified workers from the growing pool of unemployed workers.”

In Europe, online job demand eased for the fifth successive month, although the overall rate of decline has slowed to a trickle.  But the headline figure masks contrasting performances from some of the leading economies.  Demand in France, Italy and Belgium advanced by six, five and four points respectively, while the Netherlands also edged into positive territory with a single-point rise.  The UK remained unchanged, but Germany saw a two-point fall while Sweden registered an eight-point drop.

“The continued slowdown in EU recruitment activity at the onset of the third quarter shows that recent improvements in overall economic sentiment have yet to boost job-creation among European companies,” added Hugo.  “Germany, where hiring started to cool at a relatively late stage of the downturn, is now weighing heavily on the Index, while demand appears to have stabilised in other major markets such as France, the Netherlands and the UK.”

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Some managers are targeting job candidates made redundant by rival firms, dispelling the “myth” that there is a stigma attached to losing your job, research has suggested.

A recent study of 500 human resources managers and 4,000 workers found completely opposite views on the treatment of people being laid off.

One in three workers feared that potential employers looked badly on candidates recently made redundant, while a similar number of managers said the opposite was true.

More than a third of workers believed there were no jobs available, but half of firms said they were still recruiting staff despite the recession.

Commenting on the research, Ian Partington, Managing Director of Simply Jobs Boards said: “Job losses are dominating the headlines, but not all companies are shedding staff or freezing recruitment. It’s easy to see how job hunting myths can come to fruition when candidates are under increased stress.

“However, the research shows that in this difficult time, many businesses need talented, committed employees more than ever.”

www.simplyhrjobs.co.uk

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