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Global competition for talent is seeing employers navigating new territory to attract the vital tech skills they need in a post-pandemic era. With the South West fast becoming a haven for new tech firms hungry for software engineers, programmers, network security specialists and data science experts, dipping into the international talent pool is a logical next step.  

Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the lowest unemployment rate across the UK for 48 years, at 3.6 per cent nationwide, and the lowest in the entire UK in the South West at just  2.7 per cent.

Employee benefits have always been important to employees, but since the pandemic shifted the way we work and the way we think about work/life balance, the benefits employers have to offer matter more than ever.

Over the years, having a degree has become somewhat of a 'standard requirement' for many jobs – and not just graduate ones! So, we conducted a survey on Twitter and asked Exeter-based employers whether or not they would hire someone without a degree... and the results are in!

More than 6.5 million workers are expected to quit their jobs in the next 12 months with many seeking out better pay, increased job satisfaction and greater work life balance. As a result, the number of open vacancies has also increased rapidly in the past few months.

The job market has been a swinging pendulum for the past two and a half years and it’s caused a lot of uncertainty for clients and candidates alike. However, we’re now entering an era completely led by candidates.

I think most businesses will agree with me when I say that the past few months haven’t been the easiest. As we predicted, economic uncertainty continued; inflation rose to a record-high of 9.1 per cent, yet we had surprise growth. Additional turbulence occurred in the UK’s political landscape with a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Boris Johnson launching in early June.

In March 2020, businesses were thrown into turmoil, facing situations no leader had ever faced before. Overnight, teams were forced to work remotely, and businesses lost huge sums of revenue. In the following months, mental health began to decline, redundancies spiked, 11.7 million people were furloughed and leaders were leaning on HR more than ever before in an attempt to keep their heads above water and to ensure that their teams felt supported in this incredibly turbulent time.

When Boris Johnson said that working from home isn’t productive because of the ‘distractions of cheese and coffee’, and when Lord Alan Sugar came out and said that the pandemic has ‘unleashed a workshy, entitled culture in which people demand — and are allowed — to work from home’, there’s perhaps no surprise that the business world divided into two.

Let’s face it, recruiters and recruitment agencies don’t have the best reputation in the eyes of some. Apparently, we’re CV pushers with our eyes only on the commission prize. Of course, there may be some individuals that warrant such bad press but, overall, it’s a myth!

The legal sector looks vastly different from how it did even just a few months ago. There’s no denying that it has been a sector that has taken a little longer than others to catch up with change and digital transformation, tied very much to the traditional apron strings. Nevertheless, it’s clear that the legal sector has evolved, and employers must be aware of what this means for hiring.

Lifelong learning and continuous professional development are linked with a wealth of benefits from better financial security to improved health. Additionally, in this day and age, with technology rapidly changing, it also gives job security to those who keep up with or stay one step ahead of change.