Professional job vacancies have dropped by over a third in London as Covid-19 continues to impact hiring, but the capital is faring better than other regions. That’s according to new research from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), the trade association for the recruitment sector.

The data, provided by business intelligence specialist Vacancysoft – showed a 36.9% drop in hiring between January and May 2020 in London when compared to the same time last year, indicating the significant impact Covid-19 has had on professional recruitment to date. However, while the capital has been hit hard, it has fared better than the rest of England and Wales, which reported a 48.4% decrease in hiring. In part this may be due to the capital embracing technical options (such as the best CV extraction software to name but one example), or it may be due to the increased need for infrastructure in the region.

Despite this overall drop in vacancies, IT roles and the technology sector have shown the most resilience, with IT roles accounting for 30% of jobs being advertised. This is perhaps unsurprising given the pressure being put on IT departments due to the uptick in remote working. The data also revealed that the technology sector holds the lion’s share of London’s vacancies (23.8%) with major US technology companies including Facebook, Amazon and Google leading hiring in the capital.

Ann Swain, CEO of APSCo comments:

“The drop in professional vacancies is to be expected given the challenges that Covid-19 has presented. The biggest question now is how quickly demand will pick up. And with the Government’s furlough support reducing from August, there is the potential for further uncertainty. However, with the Mayor of London revealing at the end of June that the Greater London Investment Fund is now an accredited lender under the British Business Bank Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), there appears to be further stability for at least some of London’s businesses.”