It can sometimes seem that even the best applicant tracking system UK has to offer doesn’t have a huge amount to track! Both industry figures and Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister, have been weighing in on the difficult situation for young people in the UK. More than a million people aged 16-25 are not in work or education. Vacancies are at an all time low. Is AI the problem? It’s certainly being demonised but most UK recruiters are planning to make more use of AI in the year ahead. The Prime Minister is also worried about interviewing via Zoom or Teams, “How does a young person shine in that situation?”
But with one in six of our under 25s excepting to be out of work, education or training in the next five years face-to-face interviews are unlikely to help. So what will? Candidate database software is an invaluable tool for agencies, but it doesn’t help very young candidates shine as a limited track record and low level of experience can definitely cause them to fall down an algorithm’s rankings.
However … as recruitment agencies highlight the gloom in our headline, the figures don’t quite bear that story out. While declines are still being recorded in the South and North, London and the Midlands have a pattern of new upturns in permanent hiring in July. And the growth in temporary billings – a classic way for young people to get further experience – is close to 2023 levels, quite an upswing.
Recruiting software can help young candidates stay resilient in their job search
Recruitment software UK demonstrates the same uptick – in fact the North of England might be struggling with permanent placements but it has a higher growth in temporary billings than anywhere else. This indicates new projects starting – perhaps without the confidence that allows organisations to hire permanently from the start, but still a sign of growth to come. The UK has recorded its firsthand month without a drop in permanent placements since Liz Truss resigned as PM. It’s been a long and remorseless downturn, but just perhaps the corner is being turned.
Recruitment CRM for agencies can help those young people, by both identifying and highlighting personal attributes and transferable skills and by dealing with one of the biggest complaints they have – that applying for hundreds of jobs without a single acknowledgement, let alone interview, is soul-destroying. Using automated processes, agencies can at least give younger candidates the dignity of a response and begin to build the relationship that can last a whole career through. And the government is considering how it can help too. The PM has said that companies offering six-week work placements for teens could be given priority around government contracts – a win-win that suggests there might be rays of light starting to appear through the recruitment industry gloom.
