Quiet job market

[daisyintheclouds]

Is anyone else finding that their target job market is quiet at the moment? I’m a bit concerned as I thought this would be the busiest period of the year.

My contract is ending in a few months so I’m actively looking and applying.

However I’ve only found 2 jobs that are a good fit since Christmas. I check job sites every day, had conversations with several recruiters and have also asked people in my network to keep their eye out for me.

What techniques have you used to find a job? I’m feeling that I must be missing something.

Who quits their job just after Xmas?

I quit my job just after christmas... I had only just started and didn't want it on my CV. To be fair there are loads of jobs around for my market, it's absolutely booming, although what I'm looking for is quite specific. I've got some temp work to tide myself over though.

If the jobs aren't there Daisy, they aren't there. A couple of years ago it was very quiet for my field, so it just depends on what the market is doing. Things usually pick up going into spring though as all those new year job hunters start to get things moving.

Not sure what you can do other than scour the boards and ingratiate yourself with as many recruiters in your field as possible!

Accounts. Very quiet atm.

I think everyone is waiting until the Brexit debacle is sorted - it's holding back a lot of contracts. No-one likes uncertainty.

Yep, the job market in my field has been dead for months. Everyone is sitting tight in their existing jobs no matter how miserable they are and no new roles are coming on as no companies want to take a risk spending money until they know just how bad Brexit will be.

My job was cut in December and it's extremely worrying that there are literally no roles out there. I am pretty much willing to do anything (legal) to get some money coming through the door but even for bar work or shop work I get asked for a c.v.

Nobody will know what the effect of Brexit is for years though! There's the short term effects for a couple of months, some disruption but the long term is completely unknown.

I wouldn't put anything down to Brexit, keep looking and applying. If it isn't Brexit it will be something else. In hard times, all the more reason organisations need good candidates with great transferable skills, to get them ahead of the competition.

When there is uncertainty, companies hold back on decision making. Brexit is causing uncertainty. Obviously other issues come in to play at different times, but to say that Brexit isn't having an impact - imo - is unrealistic.

We've had some vacancies out and not many applicants so we seem to have the opposite problem!

Public sector policy and admin work.

normally this is a very busy time in the jobs market yes, as people who have been fed up all 2018 decide to make a change for 2019.

Its entirely likely that impending Brexit is reducing this phenomenon. Also it might be that where it does happen, the employers are holding back on advertising the vacancy for a bit - if you are worried that redundancies might be on the horizon then you can save a lot of grief by choosing not to refill vacancies.

can you adapt what you do to something either brexit-proof or something that could grow despite a general downturn?

could you set yourself up as a freelance sole-trader? If there are employers holding back on filling vacancies they might have a backlog of work which you could do as a freelancer without them having to commit?

The advantage is that if companies are hesitating due to brexit, so are applicants. Not many people want to start a new job in an uncertain time. I'm having to look as I'm temping at the moment but wanting something perm, and there are a fair few vacancies in my field but I'm hoping the candidate pool will be narrowed due to the Brexit effect.