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There are two constants in hiring at the
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moment. One is that there are not many
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jobs, and the other is that LinkedIn is
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more popular than ever for job seekers.
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The platform has exploded in popularity
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to rival social media big dogs in a
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brutally competitive attention economy.
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It's full of companies pitching jobs,
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people pitching themselves, and a
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growing number of recruitment
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influencers peddling the secret sauce to
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winning in a tough hiring market, or so
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they say. But what actually works on the
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platform? And what can LinkedIn itself
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tell us about the state of the UK jobs
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market? Well, I'm lucky enough to be
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joined by LinkedIn's country manager for
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the UK, Janine Chamberlain. Janine,
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thank you very much for joining us.
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Well, it's me who is lucky today.
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Thanks, Matt. On a broad macro level
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about the jobs market, what are the
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trends that you're seeing in the UK
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hiring market at the moment from
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LinkedIn? So, in the UK and actually in
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many of the major economies around the
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world right now, we're seeing that the
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hiring market is a little bit slower.
0:57
Hiring is still pre-sort of pandemic
1:00
levels, if you will, if you were to
1:01
compare it to that. I think it's safe to
1:03
say that there's still a little bit of
1:04
cooling down after the incredible hiring
1:08
boom that we saw after or just like at
1:11
the tail end of the pandemic. And
1:14
specifically, something that we're
1:15
seeing in the UK is that this is
1:17
impacting the confidence among job
1:21
leading job seekers, and maybe more
1:25
broadly, leading people to kind of stay
1:27
put in their jobs even if they are maybe
1:30
not so happy in their existing jobs
1:31
anymore, and they might be curious about
1:34
other jobs. They might even apply and go
1:36
through an entire interview process to
1:38
then still stay put because of that
1:40
uncertainty. So, it's kind of safer to
1:43
to stay where you are. I'm really
1:44
interested in this in this concept. I
1:46
think you've described it before as job
1:48
hugging as opposed to job hopping. And
1:50
there always having that view that
1:52
millennials and Gen Z are going to have
1:54
far more jumping, far more jobs in their
1:57
career than maybe their Gen X and and
2:00
boomer parents and grandparents would
2:01
have had. Why is that at the moment? And
2:03
do you think it's a long-term trend?
2:06
So, [snorts] first of all, yes, job
2:08
hugging, which is actually a term that
2:10
recruiters have come up with because
2:12
they'll be working with candidates and
2:15
more than half of recruiters have told
2:17
us that they have to invest a lot more
2:18
time right now in kind of
2:20
building that relationship and and
2:22
providing the confidence in the sort of
2:24
certainties that, you know, make people
2:27
kind of jump to that next opportunity.
2:30
Now, I think that it's quite natural
2:32
when you look at the current kind of
2:35
macroeconomy and some of that
2:38
even in kind of previous periods where
2:40
that was the case, you would have
2:42
probably seen people kind of pause for a
2:44
moment to just see what's going on.
2:46
I think in addition to that, we're
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obviously seeing that everyone's trying
2:50
to figure out what AI is going to mean
2:52
for them, for their jobs. I think
2:54
businesses are trying to figure out what
2:55
this is going to mean for them. And that
2:57
also provides a really great opportunity
3:00
for people to kind of invest in the
3:02
skills that are that that companies are
3:04
recruiting for right now, which is a lot
3:06
of AI skills, but also combined with
3:09
uniquely human skills. And so, job
3:12
seekers, I think can prepare themselves
3:14
for this future of work by really
3:15
investing in the skills that that they
3:18
need and kind of keeping an eye on like
3:20
what are companies hiring for right now.
3:23
And just on that point about skills, cuz
3:25
I think there has been a really evolving
3:26
picture about exactly what skills are
3:29
useful and necessary. I know that 10
3:31
years ago, very much the line was that
3:32
everyone should be learning Python and
3:35
SQL and these coding languages. Now,
3:36
it's sort of changing and it's more
3:38
about how much can you engage with
3:39
generative AI. I suppose if you were
3:41
talking to a job seeker now, what advice
3:44
would you give them about the skills
3:45
that they should be investing in?
3:47
Yeah, it's actually funny that you say
3:50
so, I'm at an event today and I was just
3:52
talking about this. I have a 15-year-old
3:54
son, and 3 years ago, I practically
3:56
forced him to choose computing or coding
4:00
for his GCSEs, right? And then the year
4:02
after, you basically get this enormous
4:05
rise of generative AI, and I thought, is
4:07
that actually the right skill that he
4:09
still needs to learn? And so, like from
4:12
on the one hand, I would say the the
4:13
most critical skill that everyone needs
4:15
is to learn how to learn so that we can
4:18
keep adapting and stay agile as the
4:19
world keeps changing. But what I can see
4:22
that companies are recruiting for right
4:24
now, it is absolutely AI literacy
4:26
skills. So, how do you learn to work
4:28
really well with AI tools? Companies are
4:32
But as AI is coming in and sort of
4:35
augmenting certain parts of the jobs
4:37
that we do, taking over some of the
4:39
tasks, it frees up time for us to do
4:43
what we do best as humans, the sort of
4:44
uniquely human skills. So, the other
4:46
part of that is invest in skills like
4:49
communication, leadership, relationship
4:52
building. And then obviously, as a job
4:54
seeker, make sure that those skills are
4:56
well represented on your resume or on
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your LinkedIn profile so that companies
5:00
actually know where to find you.
5:04
And Janine, are you optimistic about the
5:06
UK jobs market at the moment? Cuz
5:07
there's been a lot of doom and gloom,
5:08
and I know we report on a lot of quite
5:10
bleak data we've seen. Obviously, as you
5:11
mentioned earlier, there is slight a
5:13
slight whiff of COVID about all of this.
5:15
But do you do you think we can see and
5:16
expect a bounce back at some point
5:18
relatively soon? What we're seeing, if
5:20
you look at the sort of macroeconomies
5:22
around the world and the data that
5:24
supports that, is that hiring is slower
5:27
in many economies around the world. So,
5:29
this is not unique to the UK right now.
5:31
And I'm also seeing that there are some
5:33
really great opportunities in industries
5:36
such as education, health care,
5:39
utilities, consumer services. So, what I
5:42
would say is it's about understanding
5:46
companies actually are recruiting, data
5:48
that we actually produce and we share
5:50
that with all of our members. And then
5:53
being smart about how you navigate your
5:55
career to make sure that you respond to
5:58
to the opportunities that exist.
6:02
just on that point as well about the way
6:03
in which maybe the macro environment is
6:05
interacting with the hiring market. Are
6:07
you finding that the the current
6:10
geopolitical volatility is affecting
6:12
maybe the confidence that companies have
6:13
in hiring and their ability to hire?
6:17
I would say that it is pretty normal
6:19
that when there is so much uncertainty
6:21
in the world, both people looking for
6:23
jobs or maybe thinking about changing
6:26
careers as well as companies kind of
6:28
take a pause to understand or to, you
6:31
know, assess the situation and see how
6:34
things are going to progress going
6:36
forward. So, I think it's a it's a real
6:38
combination of all the things that are
6:39
happening in the macroeconomy right now.
6:42
One more question from me, which is
6:43
obviously, all I mean, LinkedIn is seen,
6:46
I think, by the sort of professional
6:47
public in a few ways. Obviously, it's
6:50
People initially saw it very much as a
6:51
social media platform for for
6:52
professionals. Now, it's evolved into
6:54
very much a comprehensive job board. But
6:56
now also, there's this sort of emerging
7:00
I suppose career influencers, and you
7:03
see a lot of people who are sort of
7:05
styling themselves as like thought
7:06
leaders in the recruitment space. Is
7:09
that something that at LinkedIn you're
7:10
sort of trying to invest in and trying
7:11
to get more people to sort of share
7:12
their own experiences, share their own
7:14
testimonials on on how people can get
7:16
hired? I've actually been at LinkedIn
7:17
for more than 17 years, and I think it's
7:19
safe to say that the platform has
7:21
evolved quite a lot in that time.
7:25
And it's it's a knowledge platform, and
7:28
it's a network of professionals around
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the world who are actually sharing that
7:32
knowledge with each other, and thought
7:34
leadership is absolutely a part of that
7:37
because what people come to LinkedIn for
7:39
is to learn more, to connect with other
7:42
people, and ultimately find ways to grow
7:45
their careers and and kind of maybe
7:48
develop their brand, whichever way that
7:50
applies to the specific jobs that they
7:52
have. So, yeah, I would say thought
7:54
leadership is is a crucial part of that.
7:57
Brilliant. Janine, thank you so much.
