In a piece a few weeks ago, we used the 1-3 digit Standard Occupation Classifications (SOC) as an approximation of jobs that generally require a high skillset, and then delved into our Job Posting Analytics to identify the most in-demand job titles and hard skills at that level. In this piece we want to do the same exercise, but this time looking at occupations which are in the mid-range of skills. These are jobs which generally require a Level 3-5 education, and are defined by the Office for National Statistics as Administrative and Secretarial (SOC 4); Skilled Trades (SOC 5); Caring, Leisure and Other Service Occupations (SOC 6).
Beginning with job titles, the interactive chart below ranks the Top 20 jobs in this mid-range category, according to unique postings from January to August this year. There are a number of interesting trends highlighted by the chart:
- Jobs connected with the hospitality sector have moved down the rankings over the period, with Chefs and Sous Chefs, at numbers 2 and 10 respectively in January, moving to 5 and 19 by August. However, you can see that demand for Chefs in particular increased after May, as restaurants, pubs and cafes began to reopen.
- Some of the biggest movements up the rankings are in jobs directly connected with health and care. For instance, Home care social workers moved from the 7th most sought after job at the start of the year to 4th by August, whilst Healthcare workers started off the year in 19th place, but had moved to 13th by August.
(To highlight a specific job title, you can manually move the slider at the top of the chart until you come to the one you are looking for, and you can also see actual job postings by hovering your cursor over any of the lines):
We can also look at in-demand hard skills within these mid-range skillset occupations, which we’ve done in the chart below. Again, we can see how many of the issues and priorities around the Covid-19 response are reflected in the data, including:
- A notable increase in skills relating to learning and mental health, such as Autism (therapies) (from 10th to 6th); Learning disabilities (11th to 7th) and Mental health (13th to 8th).
- Nursing has seen the biggest rise in the rankings, from 20th to 10th place.
- Skills such as Booking (sales), Credit Control, and Management Accounting have slipped down the list of in-demand skills, from 5th to 12th, 14th to 23rd, and 19th to 25th respectively:
In our final piece in this series, we’ll look at demand for jobs at the low skilled end of the spectrum.
If you would like to find out more about job and skills demand in your area, or for particular occupations, contact us now.
