Competition for engineering jobs intensifies, as average applications per vacancy soar by 202.5%

The latest job market report from CV-Library, the UK independent job board, reveals that there were 202.5% more applicants battling it out for every engineering job than there was a year ago in June; as competition for available jobs intensifies. 

The job board analysed its data from June 2020 and compared the findings with May 2020 and June 2019 to see how the job market is fairing right now. It reveals that applications to engineering jobs rose by 29.9% month-on-month and by 10.3% year-on-year. 

Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, comments on the findings: “The rise in applications will be welcome news to organisations that have struggled to source top talent in recent years. However, the sad reality is that hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to look for a new role because of the pandemic. 

“Competition for these jobs is intensifying and businesses need to be sensitive of the situation and remember that employer branding is still important. Try to give constructive feedback, communicate your hiring timeline and be as honest and open as possible with candidates.” 

CV-Library’s data also reveals that while job numbers in the engineering industry are slowly picking back up month-on-month, increasing by 48.4% in June, they are still 63.5% lower than they were a year ago. 

What’s more, average pay dropped by 1.5% month-on-month; from £40,127 in May 2020, to £39,523 in June 2020. 

Biggins continues: “As lockdown restrictions started to ease in June, we saw a number of different industries return to the workplace and this helped to instil confidence back into businesses.

“However, we still have a long way to go until job numbers return to normal levels. The fact that average salaries have dropped isn’t overly surprising, particularly as many organisations have struggled with their breakeven point during the pandemic.

“While most professionals still say that salary is the most important factor to them when looking for a new role, we’re also seeing that more workers want flexibility and job security too.

“As we can see from our data, lower wages certainly aren’t putting people off applying, but businesses will need to accommodate to their changing needs.”