Evenbase’s Winter 2012/13 Quarterly Recruitment Review sees a continued trend in the hiring uplift reported in the Autumn Quarterly Recruitment Review, with the average number of vacancies advertised per business back up to 7.8, which was last seen in Nov 2011 and is the highest figure reported in 2012.

The most recent Recruitment Review saw a 13% surge in temporary/contract vacancies being advertised by businesses with 4.3 temporary/contract vacancies per business; this can be linked with the annual trend of seasonal jobs, but it is still a 54% increase in temporary/contract roles year on year.

Almost two-thirds of all vacancies are now advertised online, which has risen since the autumn to an average of 5.1 online vacancies per employer. However, businesses’ consideration of using newspaper ads has leap-frogged job boards for the first time in 2012. This shift in vacancy advertising is likely to be attributed largely to the 13% increase in the number of SME businesses (50-249 employees) looking for staff as smaller businesses with less resources perhaps prefer to stick to traditional mediums of recruitment advertising and their own personal networks.

For businesses looking to hire new staff, the talent pool of candidates can be found online – as 83% of jobseekers cite job boards as their most considered job search method. This is the highest figure on record since Evenbase’s Quarterly Recruitment Review began in 2008 and has increased a further 5% from Autumn 2012.

Another indication of the ongoing strength of digital recruitment is that jobseekers are also considering using company websites to find their next role, which has jumped by 10% this quarter to reach the same level as job boards. Also, the consideration of using social and business networks has reached 50% for the first time – indicating that jobseekers are proactively considering more channels in their job hunt.

The research shows a sharp increase in social media usage and an ongoing focus on mobile technologies. In February 2010, 43% of respondents said they owned a smartphone; today that number is 76%. It’s perhaps therefore unsurprising that the desirability of mobile features among jobseekers rose significantly with nearly a third of jobseekers now wanting mobile versions of job boards.

Businesses however, seem less certain, ranking both social media and mobile as less important factors when choosing a job board than in Autumn 2012. Still playing it fairly safe, businesses may be taking a slightly more proactive approach in response to greater jobseeker activity, but they remain unimpressed by added extras that extend the basic features of job boards.

The Evenbase Quarterly Recruitment Review (Winter 2012/13) is available to download now for free: www.evenbase.com/RecruitmentReviewWinter12 . The next Quarterly Recruitment Review will be available in March/April 2013.