The latest job market data from CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job board, revealed that job vacancies plummeted by 74.9% in the legal sector in April, when looking at month-on-month data.
The study looks at job market activity throughout April, comparing the findings with the previous month and year to build an understanding of how the UK job market is fairing right now. The data shows that legal job numbers also dropped by a staggering 79.2% year-on-year.
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, commented: “We’re trying to support UK businesses as much as possible right now, but everyone is feeling the financial effects of the current crisis. Thousands of companies have put a pause on their hiring plans until there’s more certainty in the market and the pandemic is having an impact on all sorts of industries; including the legal sector.
“All we can do now is prepare for the recovery and hope that business confidence picks up over the next few months when lockdown restrictions eventually ease. Unfortunately, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel at this stage, especially as we move into the thick of the spring/summer period, which tends to be quieter for hiring anyway.”
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Despite more Brits being out of work or placed on furlough in April, CV-Library's data shows that application numbers also dropped significantly last month; down 45% in the legal sector when looking at month-on-month data and by 36% year-on-year.
In addition to these findings, the job board also explored the application to job ratio on its site and found that this increased by 208% in the legal industry in April, compared to the previous year. This means there is more competition amongst candidates for the roles that are available.
In fact, CV-Library's data shows that there were an average of 30.18 applications per legal role in April 2020, as opposed to just 9.8 in April 2019.
Biggins concluded: “Unfortunately, organisations have had to make some tough decisions over the past six weeks, with ONS figures revealing that two thirds of businesses have placed staff on furlough. While these professionals might not be actively looking for work right now, especially at a time when there’s so much uncertainty, we do expect application figures to pick up in the coming months and clearly there is already increased competition for jobs.”
