We collect Big Data from the UK job market in real-time, using eBoss JobFeed technology. That information is used to produce reports on current recruitment industry trends. This month, we take a look at joblistings for Drivers. Are staffing shortages hitting suppply chains? Here's what we learned…
UK Job Market Data: August 2021
The supply of skills is still being disrupted by pandemic fallout and Brexit. But how severe is talent drought in key industries?
We asked this question after a number of news agencies reported empty shelves in Britain's supermarkets. Many suggested that Brexit limits on overseas workers had created a staffing shortage. Others contended that the official Covid track-and-trace app was over-reporting cases and forcing otherwise healthy workers to stay home and isolate.
Last week, we looked at whether a Pingdemic was responsible for a shortage of produce on Britain's supermarket shelves.
Our findings were inconclusive. That is: there was no clear increase in demand for temporary logistics staff in supermarkets to suggest that employee absences were really an issue.
This week, as part of our regular UK job market reporting, we are investigating hiring trends for Drivers across the UK.
Number Crunching
• 513 driving jobs have been created within the last 24 hours (including those jobs first posted today). This accounts for 0.1% of all jobs in the UK jobs market at present.
• 2,794 job listings for drivers have been posted within the last 7 days. This accounts for 0.6 per cent (0.6%) of all jobs in the UK jobs market.
• 7,830 job listings for drivers have been posted within the last 7 days. This accounts for 1.5 per cent (1.5%) of all jobs in the UK jobs market.
• 2,776 driver vacancies have remained open and unfilled on the Jobfeed system for more than thirty days. This amounts to 26 per cent (26%) of all driver roles.
The overall trends suggest that job creation is accelerating over the course of the month.
The final statistic finds more than a quarter of all driving jobs remaining unfilled for more than a month. This statistic alone heavily suggests a critical shortage of driver applicants in the UK jobs market at present.
The side-by-side snapshot: May 2020
Fifteen months ago, we took a similar database snapshot.
Overall, we can see that the prevailing trend has continued over the last 15 months. Just like today, job creation for drivers remained steady throughout early lockdown conditions.
Famously, driving roles were a key growth area during the early stages of the pandemic. A significant increase in home deliveries of goods placed greater logistical demands and recruiters were answering the need for more driving staff in the open market.
Limitations
Our data offers only a snapshot of the jobs market, collected at an arbitrary time. Data parsing is not scheduled, or normalised to occur at static points in the week/month.
We have only researched job listings for the general term "drivers". This means the search is not limited solely to (eg) HGV drivers, elderly care drivers, or taxi drivers, but to any form of driving work.
Jobfeed technology is capable of completing more specific job title searches, but we have attempted to provide the broadest picture with this report. However, this also makes our findings less valuable when attempting to pinpoint the exact areas of growth within the jobs market.
About our Data
We track the rate of job creation by extracting real-time data from the eBoss Jobfeed system.
Note: Our data only collects job listings made by the final employer, not agency adverts. This is to avoid duplication of data where multiple agencies may be attempting to fill the same role.