Exciting news from one of our associates in the recruitment sector - Happy Birthday AdZuna.

Adzuna.co.uk celebrates 1st birthday with launch of free job market statistics

Adzuna (http://www.adzuna.co.uk), the next-generation classifieds search engine backed by Index Ventures, The Accelerator Group and Passion Capital, is 1 year old this week - and has today announced the launch of its ‘Market Insight’, a statistical overview for any search result which gives jobseekers free, unique access to whole-of-market salary trends.

The site, launched by the team behind Gumtree, Zoopla and Qype has gained significant traction in the UK and now boasts over half a million monthly unique visitors, 2 million ads indexed (over 90% market coverage) and rapidly growing revenues. This growth comes hot on the heels of their launch of disruptive social search tools such as Adzuna Connect and Friend Map which help you find the perfect job, car or home ‘with a little help from your friends’.

The new stats interface aims to empower jobseekers to make better career decisions like no tool has done before. The service is free and brings together historical salary trends, pay comparisons, vacancy maps, company hiring patterns and more. Adzuna provides rich data for over 1 million job titles and location combinations; from wages for Bankers in Bristol to demand for LAMP developers in London.  Previously, this kind of market data was only available to large corporations via expensive benchmarking studies from HR consulting firms; now Adzuna is making it available to anyone for free.

Live stats for popular job types :

Graduate Job Statistics                                                Journalist Job Statistics
Software Developer Statistics                                      Engineering Job Statistics
Accounting & Finance Statistics                                   Marketing Job Statistics


Doug Monro, Co-Founder of Adzuna, said “We’re delighted with Adzuna’s progress in our first year.  With complete market coverage, social search and now free data, we are changing the way in which people find jobs, properties and cars in the UK - and soon globally.  Our dataset is the most comprehensive and up to date source of information on the British job market out there, and we want to make this freely available to everyone.  If you are looking for a pay rise, here’s your ammunition; if you are looking to hire, here’s how much you need to pay.”


Some example nuggets extracted from our data:

• The average Banking IT salary is £51,100 p.a., 22% more than the avg tech start up.
• Technology Journalists make on avg £31,800 p.a., 9% less than Fashion Journos.
• The average salary for Google employees is on average 5% more than Microsoft.
• 25% of startups currently hiring in London are offering stock to employees up front.
• London ruby developer wages have increased from £43k in January to £46k in June
• Gordon Ramsay Holdings is currently the top company looking for waiters in London, closely followed by Marriott, The Dorchesters, Claridge’s and Harrods.
• Roger Federer’s Wimbledon paycheck was greater than the total earnings of all 1,800 catering staff working at the All England Club over the Wimbledon fortnight.

News: Hundreds of vocational courses to be axed

Hundreds of vocational courses will effectively be axed under a Government overhaul of qualifications for teenagers.
Ministers will step in to prevent pupils opting for "dead end" courses that fail to prepare them for higher education or the world of work.
The Coalition will today outline plans to ban many of these qualifications from official school or college league tables - stopping heads pushing pupils onto courses simply to inflate their ranking.
Ofqual, the exams regulator, will also be told to take a tougher stance towards exam standards in a move designed to ensure many poor-quality courses fail to win state accreditation. It will enable more money to be spent on higher level apprenticeships.
Under Labour, the number of vocational courses on offer to teenagers more than doubled.
In 1996/7, some 2,254 different qualifications could be taken, but by 2009/10 that number had ballooned to 5,620.

For the Full story: Vocational Qualifications Axed

News: £60m Youth Jobs Package

£60m youth jobs package unveiled
David Cameron wants to reverse the trend of rising youth unemployment
The Government has moved to tackle rising youth unemployment by announcing a £60 million package aimed at boosting work prospects and "transforming" vocational education.
With youth unemployment nearing a million, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister issued a commitment to get more vulnerable youngsters into work by tackling some of the long term "structural barriers" they said stopped some young people starting their career.
The Government said it will provide funding for up to 250,000 more apprenticeships over the next four years, and fund 100,000 work placements over the next two years.
Ministers also announced that more than 100 large firms and tens of thousands of small companies around the country had pledged to offer work experience places.
Measures in a new paper called Supporting Youth Employment are designed to ensure that young people have the opportunity to get work, advance their career prospects and encourage social mobility and help fill some of the 500,000 vacancies in the job market, said ministers.

For the full story read: £60m Youth Jobs Package

News: More Graduates taking low-skill jobs

More graduates taking low-skill jobs

University leavers have faced a tough jobs market since the economic downturn

University leavers are increasingly taking non-graduate jobs, according to research.

Six months after leaving university, about 40% of last year's graduates were "underemployed" in lower-skilled jobs, up from about 30% four years before.

The research, published by the Association of Accounting Technicians, says new graduates have been among the worst hit by the economic downturn.

A degree remains a "good investment", says a government spokesman.

The research, carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, forecasts a worsening jobs market for graduates who will leave this summer.

For the full story visit: More Graduates taking low-skill jobs

News: Apprenticeships v Degrees

Degree or apprenticeship: which works best in the job market?

With fees rocketing, the cachet of a degree is becoming too expensive - and may not lead to a job. We asked employers for their views on old-fashioned work experience

The head of McDonald's in Britain caused quite a stir last week when she suggested that some school leavers would be better off getting a job in a burger joint than going to university. Jill McDonald, who coincidentally shares a name with her employer, called for an end to education "snobbery", arguing that university was not for everybody and promoting apprenticeships at companies such as hers as a good alternative.

It's easy to sneer at this sentiment, and plenty of commentators did. But with 42% of this summer's university graduates expected to take jobs that do not require a degree - known as being "under-employed" - and plans for undergraduate fees to jump to £9,000 a year, would-be students and their parents are increasingly asking if it's worth going to university at all.

This, in turn, is prompting companies to look at ways to bring in more school leavers, predominantly through apprenticeships. They have differing motives for wanting to do so, but most say they want to ensure that they do not lose out on any talent that cannot afford to go to university, as well as broaden the diversity of their workforces.

For the full story visit: Apprenticeships v Degrees

The Future of Careers Advice

News from the: The CV and Job Store (Jobs in Education and Training)

The government is considering making its new all-age careers service an online-only facility, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders has revealed.

Brian Lightman: warned that schools and colleges are in the dark about the future of IAG.

Speaking at a national conference on the future of information, advice and guidance (IAG) services for young people, Brian Lightman urged the government not to turn away from offering face-to-face careers advice for young people.
"There is so much uncertainty. At the moment the all-age careers service is looking like an all-age website and telephone service, and at best an all-age franchise," he said. "That is not the way to structure this really important area of activity."
Lightman warned that schools and colleges are in the dark about the future of IAG.
"Schools and colleges desperately need more information from the government," he explained. "We have persuaded skills minister John Hayes to write to schools about what is actually happening but I'm afraid a lot of it hasn't been decided yet."
He called on government to set out a coherent plan for careers advice in schools, rather than leaving everything to local determination.

Read the full story here: The Future of Careers Advice

Competition Winner

Well done to our monthly WINNER!

I was thrilled to get the call to tell me I'd won a Tom Tom Sat Nav as I had recently registered on CV and Job Store and was selected from their monthly prize draw!

As a job seeker, I have registered with CV and Job Store as it is really easy to navigate with great graphics and search filters and is relevant to my particular job search i.e. is dedicated to the education and training industry.

Given that I am a passionate training professional with a strong background in multi-site organisations within the retail and hospitality sectors, I have uploaded my CV on the website and am looking forward to talking with recruiters looking to fill education and training positions in their organisations.

Andrea Taylor