‘Job market boom’ as social care salaries and applications increase

Average salaries for new roles in the social care sector are rising, despite uncertainty in the weeks leading up to a supposed Brexit, new research shows.

Salaries for new roles were up by 2% in March, prompting a 1.3% increase in applications, according to research from independent jobs board, CV-Library.

The findings, which compared job market data from March 2019 with the previous month, also revealed that the amount of social care jobs being advertised increased by a marginal 0.4% month-on-month, though this figure fell by 8.5% year-on-year.

Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, said that with candidate confidence up, now is the time to hire.

“It is no secret that the social care industry is facing a significant skills shortage. As such, it’s interesting to see that despite employers offering higher pay for new roles, they appear to be nervous about their hiring efforts by advertising less jobs,” he said.

“Our findings suggest that, with increased candidate confidence, now is a great time to hire in the social care industry – particularly as we are no closer to reaching an effective Brexit deal.”

The amount of candidates in the social care industry registering their CVs online with CV-Library has also increased by 17.3%, suggesting that more individuals are starting to consider looking for jobs.

“The fact that industry professionals are keen to look for new jobs right now is promising, particularly when there is so much uncertainty around Britain’s future in the EU. Organisations across the industry that are looking to recruit have a much larger pool of talent to choose from, so take advantage of this job market boom,” Lee said.