Open roles spiked in December but overall 2019 was an average year!

Open roles spiked in December but overall 2019 was an average year!

Summary

• The jobs market was particularly competitive for the first three weeks of December before slowing in the lead into Christmas.
• Unusually December was up 8% on November this year whereas traditionally December is slower and the first month of the    shoulder season.
• The Construction sector was a big mover, driving the market higher as several projects got underway ahead of the holiday    period. The number of construction positions available rose 20% over November.
• The rolling six months JobFix index showed an increase of 5% over the same period 2018 and 2% over 2017.

While local businesses struggled to find staff toward the end of 2019 a result of many companies waiting until right on the holiday period before looking for staff, the last six months of 2019 was actually an average year. The last six months increased 5% on 2018 and 2% on 2017.  The jobs market remained extremely tight especially in December, however the peak period for the year seems to have been reached in October and is now slowly easing off.

Many businesses waited until December to look for holiday staff rather than going out early in November.
This was partly weather related as local owners dealt with the potential flooding and an unseasonably cool start to summer, which led to softer business confidence. The first 3 weeks of December saw record open positions being advertised with an average of 265 roles being advertised according to the latest JobFix data before dropping back to 180 in the week leading into Christmas.

January is expected to remain strong before demand dips heading into the shoulder season. Historically Feb-May forms the shoulder season with June through August the quieter time.