October 2023
United Kingdom Talent Trends
Data-driven insights into the changing world of work
United Kingdom
Talent Trends
Data-driven insights into the
changing world of work
In this report, we surface data insights from both LinkedIn’s Economic Graph and our member community to better understand how labour-market trends impact candidates, employees, and workplaces from the United Kingdom.
Trends in the labour market
Hiring continues to decline, but at a slower pace.
Hiring continues to decline, but at a slower pace.
Whilst 76% of recruitment professionals say the macroeconomic environment has negatively impacted hiring, the rate of decline has slowed down in the UK. From August 2022 to August 2023, there has been moderate stabilisation when compared to the hiring rate between March 2022 and March 2023, improving from -34% to -24% in the UK.
With a decrease in hiring rate still being seen, it puts a higher emphasis on the importance of retaining existing talent. According to LinkedIn's Workplace Learning Report, learning and development leaders globally highlight 'providing learning opportunities' as the top strategy organisations are employing to enhance employee retention. In fact, 34% of learning and development leaders in the UK are focusing on creating a culture of learning while 36% will prioritise upskilling their employees.
Change in hiring rate from August 2022 to August 2023
* = Seasonally adjusted.
Methodology: The LinkedIn Hiring Rate (LHR) is the number of LinkedIn members who added a new employer to their profile in the same month the new job began, divided by the total number of LinkedIn members in that country. By only analysing the timeliest data, we can make month-to-month comparisons and account for any potential lags in members updating their profiles.
What LinkedIn Chief Economist Karin Kimbrough says:
While we’re still seeing a year-over-year decline in hiring, the rate of decline is slowing in certain regions and countries, which we can take as a sign of stabilisation. I’m looking at this period as a gentle rebalancing in the labour market – meaning employers are hiring, but at a more cautious pace, and employees are staying put for longer.
Karin’s counsel to talent leaders:
This economic climate requires that businesses be agile, and that’s especially true when it comes to talent strategies.
Leaders taking a more cautious approach to talent acquisition now have the chance to focus on better understanding and developing their internal talent, thereby setting up their organisations to withstand future labour-market and macroeconomic fluctuations.
Trends in hiring
Job seekers are actively looking for their next opportunity.
Job seekers are actively looking for their next opportunity.
In the UK, the rate at which candidates have been applying to jobs has increased by 23% in the past year.
With an increase in the number of job applications, it’s important to ensure your organisation prioritises the areas candidates value most. In the last edition of Talent Trends UK, compensation, flexibility, and advancement were the top priorities for candidates in the UK. When considering your employer branding efforts, contemplate what candidates will see when interacting with your organisation, and whether this aligns with the values that are most important to them.
Year-over year change in the number of job applications candidates have been submitting
Source: LinkedIn Economic Graph
Methodology: Job applications per applicant is calculated based on job applications to premium jobs submitted by members in the same country as the job posting. We then examine the year-over-year result to estimate job seeking intensity.
Candidates are more engaged with posts that mention AI.
Our data shows that not only are the number of job posts mentioning AI increasing, but candidates are more engaged with posts that mention AI. Recruiting professionals globally are also integrating AI technology into their hiring practices, with 67% saying they hope it makes it faster and easier to source candidates, while 59% hope it makes it faster and easier to engage candidates.
Between August 2021 and July 2023 in the UK, there have been:
more job posts mentioning Artificial Intelligence or Generative AI.
more views for job posts mentioning Artificial Intelligence or Generative AI.
more applications for job posts mentioning Artificial Intelligence or Generative AI.
more applications for jobs posts mentioning Artificial Intelligence or Generative AI compared to jobs that didn’t mention them.
Methodology: We obtained job descriptions for all paid enterprise jobs in the last 24 months ending July 2023, and flagged jobs that had mentions of artificial intelligence and generative AI in 10 languages: English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, Turkish, and Chinese.
What LinkedIn VP of Global Talent Acquisition Erin Scruggs says:
As job seekers expand their searches, recruiters are likely going to see an increased volume in applications. Efficiency is always important for talent-acquisition teams – and especially in a market like this one.
Erin’s counsel to talent leaders:
While in some ways a high volume of candidates is positive, it also brings challenges to talent-acquisition work. How do recruiters efficiently find the candidates who have the skills, knowledge, and motivations that match their company’s needs?
I’d recommend that TA leaders take a magnifying glass to both their hiring principles and recruiting processes with an eye towards alignment and consistency across the organisation.
Hoping that hiring managers and interview teams know how to assess talent can be a losing strategy. Educating and training will lead to the best outcomes.
As for the popularity of job posts mentioning AI, candidates are savvy. They’re showing they want to go where the opportunities are. So I would consider it a requirement for most companies to share at least a basic roadmap of their AI strategy in job posts to keep up with the market.
Trends in career development
Employee confidence in career development has seen a slight increase.
Employee confidence in career development has seen a slight increase.
In the UK, employees have shown signs of renewed confidence that they will progress in their career in the next year, whether that’s in their current role or in a new role. As we've seen earlier in this report, hiring rates are beginning to stabilise in the UK and people are actively applying for new roles – this could give candidates increased optimism about their future opportunities.
WCI Career Development Index year over year, August 2023
Source: LinkedIn Market Research
Methodology: LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey distributed to members via email every day and aggregated every two weeks. On a 5-point scale, we ask members how much they agree or disagree with “I feel confident about my ability to progress in my career in the next year.” Over 10,000 members respond to each wave and are randomly sampled/must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners and retirees are excluded from analysis so we can get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyse data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy. Data are weighted by engagement level to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership and the overall market population are not accounted for.
What LinkedIn Senior Director of Talent Development Stephanie Conway says:
We’ve long known that employees consider career-development opportunities to be one of the top reasons to stay at – or leave – their company. The difficult but important work comes in better understanding what career development really means to our diverse employee populations.
Stephanie’s counsel to talent leaders:
To start personalising career development, help your employees identify their North Star.
We know that employees who set clear career goals are more likely to stay the course, especially because they’ll have a better understanding of what skills to build.
An important enabler in my experience is a shift away from looking at specific job titles when helping employees consider their next move. Instead, it is more effective to identify specific skills they want to develop and experiences that might help them do that.
A first step is to show employees what career development at your company looks like – through any number of programmes, like job shadowing, rotations, or sharing internal-mobility stories. While this can further personal career development, it also starts to build organisational resilience and agility.
Trends in skills and internal mobility
Companies that help their employees build skills have higher internal mobility.
Companies that help their employees build skills have higher internal mobility.
In the UK, companies whose employees excelled at developing skills in the last 12 months have a 4% higher internal mobility rate than companies who did not prioritise skill development. In fact, LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting report shows that employees in the UK at companies with high internal mobility stay 62% longer.
For example; major Fintech company Finastra created the 'DEAL' programme (Drop Everything And Learn) as a way to demonstrate their commitment to skill development and employee retention – setting aside time each week where everyone would spend an hour on LinkedIn Learning. As a result, Finastra has created an engaged learning environment with 90% of employees taking learning into their own hands.
By prioritising opportunities for employees to develop their skill sets and creating space for career growth, organisations can achieve higher retention rates through internal mobility – something companies are becoming increasingly aware of. According to the Future of Recruiting report, 74% of recruiting professionals in the UK say upskilling and reskilling employees will be an important factor shaping the future of recruiting over the next five years.
What could this look like?
Imagine Company A and Company B both have 5,000 employees, and Company A excels at developing skills while Company B falls behind.
This translates to almost 71 more internal moves at Company A by fostering skill building on the job.
Methodology:
Skills developed: “Skills added” considers skills a LinkedIn member added to their profile while they were employed in a position at the Company in the last 12 months. Companies that “excelled” at developing skills were within the 90th percentile in terms of median number of skills their employees added to their profiles in the last 12 months. Companies that “lagged” were in the 10th percentile.
Internal mobility: All data reflects aggregated LinkedIn member activity as of July 2023. We’ve defined internal mobility as any point at which an employee took a new position at the same company in the last 12 months ending July 2023. To calculate internal mobility rates, we included only companies with at least 100 transitions and then calculated the median rate.
What Director, Skills and Talent Development at LSEG Asi DeGani says:
Brave performance management is at the heart of internal mobility. Without it, there’s a real risk of falling into an endless loop of recruitment-disengagement-replacement. To avoid the loop, leaders must prioritise the upskilling of their teams, by providing clear and honest feedback and guidance. When they do, doors open, opportunities unlock, and individuals are given space to grow into their potential.
