The top sectors predicted to experience a recruitment growth in 2017

As the New Year is well and truly upon us, recruitment news site, Recruitment Buzz has published their predictions for what 2017 holds for the industry.

With employment currently rising at one of the fastest rates witnessed over the past five years, experts are optimistic about the future. Below we have listed the top five sectors tipped to experience high growth in 2017.

Accounting & Finance

Although it’s unlikely that there will be a recession in 2017, there will no doubt be some economic challenges. Whenever an economic downturn occurs, the demand for accountants and company financial experts rises which is why Recruitment Buzz is predicting a positive outlook for the Finance and accounting sector.

Brexit is going to mean that companies are going to have to change their business and accounting practices and there will also be further examination of cost and profit models. In recent years there has also been rising long-term demand for accountants as large numbers of baby-boomer accountants are retiring.

Finally, the post-Brexit reduction in the value of the pound means that the UK has suddenly become a very attractive prospect for foreign investment. The number of acquisitions and mergers is set to increase in 2017, further fuelling demand for those with corporate finance experience.

Oil, gas and energy

Although this sector has experienced a downturn in recruitment in recent years, new industry developments mean that there’s a renewed confidence in many parts of the industry.

As companies are already speculating an up-turn, it’s likely that there will be a healthy rise in demand for workers in this sector during Q3 and Q4 of 2017. The large ageing workforce in Nuclear is likely to result in a major skills shortage which may just create a market ripe for niche recruiters to exploit.

Construction

Many recruitment companies witnessed solid growth in the construction sector in 2016 and this is something that’s predicted to continue into 2017. The government has committed £5 billion to boost housing building and a huge growth in property completions means that all the signs are encouraging in this sector.

There is also concern that Brexit will result in thousands of EU nationals working in the industry returning to mainland Europe, leaving the UK severely under-resourced. A report in The Telegraph which was published at the beginning of this year claims that should this happen, the construction sector will need to attract 500,000 new recruits over the next five years in order to plug the skills gap.

Engineering

There is a well-documented skills gap in the engineering industry. The ageing workforce who will be retiring between now and 2025 is creating a huge amount of pressure as the talent pool that’s available to replace them is very small. It’s thought that 182,000 additional workers are needed every year until 2022 in order to fill the number of engineering roles which are going to become available.

IT and Technology

The IT and technology sector has topped Recruitment Buzz’s list for three out of the last four years because it faces all the demographic issues and supply and demand factors that other sectors are struggling with.

As well as comprising of an ageing workforce yet again, this industry also has to contend with the increasingly fast rate that technology advances at. As a global issue, it means that there is massive growth opportunity for IT and technology recruitment over the next 10 years.