4 recruitment statistics you need to know

1 - Why are candidates job hunting?
2 - Some candidates would accept alternative remuneration to just money
3 - Long application forms are losing you candidates
4 - How do candidates apply for jobs?
5 - What is Talent Intelligence?
6 - About the TI Market Report

Jobtrain’s Talent Intelligence Unit has released our 2023 UK Job Market report, with updated statistics, figures, and analysis for the second half of the year.

What are candidates looking for? What would turn them off during an application process? What’s the average time-to-hire in your sector? These questions and more are explored in our latest report.

But if you’re too busy to download the full report, we’ve put together a quick list of 5 standout facts that our experts have uncovered.

Why are candidates job hunting?

Out of the surveyed candidates:

• 10% are looking for better employee benefits
• 35% are looking for a career change
• 9% are looking for home-based/flexible working
• 15% are looking for their first job since leaving education
• 31% are looking for work after being made unemployed.

Jobseekers looking for work after being made unemployed have risen from 20% at the start of the year! This is likely reflective of the economic difficulties every business in the country is facing. According to City Monitor, there were more than 105,000 UK Business closures by the end of Q1 2023, while just 79,000 new businesses were created.

Some candidates would accept alternative remuneration to just money

Out of candidates surveyed:

• 39% of Gen Z would not accepted alternative remuneration
• 42% of Millennials would accept alternative remuneration
• 49% of Gen X would accept alternative remuneration
• 45% of Boomers would accept alternative remuneration

The desire for flexibility over pay isn’t that pay is not valued. In fact, 75% of candidates would choose a job with increased flexibility over increased pay! Our research revealed Gen Z were the least open to being renumerated with something other than money, and considering their focus on flexible working, it seems that flexibility supports side hustles and in turn increased pay from different sources.

Out of those candidates who would accept alternative remuneration:

• 22% would accept support with health or social care.
• 43% would accept support with qualifications, training, or scholarships.
• 17% would accept support with housing and accommodation
• 9% would accept stock options or shares
• 1% would accept full or part payment in cryptocurrency rather than money.
• 8% would accept support with energy/utilities.

This speaks to the fears we’re seeing around heating, health, social care, and housing in the past year. With economic difficulties and uncertainties – and considering people are already starting to worry how they’ll pay their energy bill this winter – it’s no wonder candidates would accept any and all help from their employer.

Notably – 20% of Generation Z respondents and 18% of millennials said they’d accept accommodation support. This is reflected in the fact that “a third of millennials may never be able to own their own home and have no other option aside from renting property their entire lives.” – Millennials and Gen Z are called “Generation Rent” for a reason – it makes sense that workers would accept secure housing as part of their contract.

Long application forms are losing you candidates

Surveyed candidates reported that:

• 43% of application forms took over 30 minutes to complete.
• 28% of application forms took around 15 minutes to complete.
• 29% of application forms took around 5 minutes to complete.

If you find yourself in that top bracket, where your application forms take at least 30 minutes, you will be losing candidates during the application process. 54% of candidates are currently in work and looking for a change, so you’re competing with all other organisations for the candidate’s time, energy, and favour. Go through your application process, time it, and shorten it if it’s too long!

How do candidates apply for jobs?

It’s assumed most candidates apply using a mobile, but when it comes to applying, our data suggests it’s much closer to 50/50. Most would have preferred to use a desktop rather than having to use a mobile.

This is likely a reaction to almost a third of applications taking over 30 minutes to complete, as some sectors and employers remain steadfast in making their candidates jump through administrative hoops.

Out of candidates surveyed:

• 67% of candidates applied via mobile or tablet.
• 44% of candidates applied via desktop or laptop.

What is Talent Intelligence?

Jobtrain is unique as an applicant tracking system provider. We have an in-house team of talent experts who are constantly working with clients, partnering with industry experts, and surveying recruitment teams and candidates. This is to learn how our clients can hire efficiently, effectively, and successfully in today’s challenging market. We offer a wide variety of data-based services, such as audits of your recruitment experience and bespoke consultancies.

About the market report

The Jobtrain ATS platform processes hundreds of thousands of vacancies and millions of applications per annum, and that has provided our Talent Intelligence Unit access to a huge amount of data. We combine this with external research and our candidate survey data - Candidata™ - to form our JobBrain™ data engine. This means we can deliver consultancy and projects for performance improvement and transformation, backed by real insight not opinion.

This edition utilises a sample of over 30,000+ vacancies and 7,500+ surveyed candidates across 18 industry sectors. It also includes expanded survey content, capturing more insight to candidate attitudes and generation identifiers.