The research in the report has been put together to create a picture across all sectors of the current hiring trends in Europe in 2020. No industry has escaped the effects of Covid-19, but as companies have to rise to the challenge of reinventing around the constraints of the pandemic, there are some sectors that have had a remarkably good year.

UK Vacancies (as of 26th Nov 2020)

For a specific breakdown of how the pandemic has affected individual sectors Deloitte has compiled an extensive list, which might be useful for job seekers to see if there is a fit within their background. LinkedIn has also assembled a list of companies that are currently hiring, which is regularly updated.

 The technology industry has boomed since the beginning of the pandemic//, and is the sector with the second highest number of vacancies after healthcare. Recruiters are looking for skills such as software development, cloud migration and scripting languages among others, and LinkedIn’s Emerging Job’s Report 2020 named Artificial Intelligence Specialist as the number one emerging job in the UK. Although AI will displace around 85 million jobs, it is thought that it will create 97 million posts by 2025. In the switch to remote working, the IT sector also currently accounts for a third of all remote job postings, and the salary for technology jobs remains higher than the majority of other fields, with the average salary being £39,000, compared to the non-tech median of £27,840.

Proving that an MBA is always a good investment, business school graduates are still in demand, with 89% of employers planning to hire MBA graduates in 2021.

The NHS increased its recruitment drive during the first lockdown, with 13,840 more nurses and 9,306 doctors in mid-August than the same time the previous year. There are plenty of other vacancies within the industry though, especially as investment in healthtech is ramped up.

Similarly, martech and edtech are also growing fields. The Covid-19 pandemic has not halted growth in the martech sector, as 60% of marketing leaders indicating that they are anticipating an increase in martech spend over the next 12 months. The shift in the educational world to a focus on online teaching has also increased funding in the sector, with London raising significantly more funding than any other European city this year, suggesting that there will be plenty of opportunity in the future.

Planned staff cuts in the finance industry were largely put on hold, with eight of the top fifteen firms increasing their headcount, while only four reduced it. However, while companies like Barclays took on more than 7000 people in the first half of the year, HSBC is planning to cut 35,000 jobs over three years. Technology based positions will largely be safe, with companies like Citigroup, Barclays and TSB investing in their digital services. Fintech is also having a moment, with fintech investment in the UK has actually increased by 500% in the last three years, in comparison to only 170% in the US.

More detailed information on the sectors mentioned above, and on the energy, transport, consultancy, cybersecurity, real estate and other industries can be found in the full report here.

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