The May 2015 North East Recruitment Index recorded a 29% month-on-month increase in job availability with 3,036 vacancies advertised, compared to 2,499 in March 2015.
Stan Murray Hession, Associate Director of Venn Group, commented: “The May Index has revealed strong growth in all sectors in the North East, fuelling this month’s steep rise in hiring activity. Research suggests that the job creation rate in the region is at ten month high, bucking the trend we have seen in other regions where vacancy rates fell as election uncertainty governed employment levels. Within the region, public sector finance has been particularly busy, with both junior and senior roles – especially management accountants – arising all over the region. There has also been a boom in the IT and digital arenas, and as the jobs market becomes more and more candidate-led, organisations are competing for the top talent by offering very lucrative rates. For example, a project management officer in the North East now stands to earn an average of £121 per hour, almost eight times the typical regional rate.”
The average rate for those securing jobs in April 2015 was 6% higher than those recorded in March 2015, with contractors now receiving an average of £17 per hour across the region.
Stan Murray Hession continued: “In other good news for the North East, David Cameron has promised to create a further two million jobs by 2020. Citing a study by think tank Centre for Cities which found that between 1998-2008, for every one job created in the North East, ten had been created in London and the South, the Conservative Government has emphasised that the country’s economic recovery will be based all around the UK, not just concentrated in the capital. And with the jobs market growing all the time, it is unsurprising that the North East is establishing itself as a strong economic hub.”
