The worst place to find a job in the UK

In one UK city, almost 80 people are chasing each vacancy...

A new disc storage format known as the DVD is unveiled, OJ Simpson is found not guilty of double murder and Michael Jackson tops the Christmas chart with Earth Song. All that happened in 1995, the last time unemployment was as high as it was in December.

The last three months of 2011 saw a jobless rate of 8.4%, with 860,000 people remaining out of work for more than a year.

Despite this nationally high rate, new research shows that the picture still varies substantially by regions. In some areas there as many as 80 job hunters for every vacancy, while in others the balance is pretty much even.

The data, put together by job search website Adzuna, compares vacancies to unemployed claimants in 50 locations across the country, pinpointing the worst and best places to find a job in the UK. It also revealed the diverse variation of job types that are in demand in certain cities.

North/south divide

Hull came out as the hardest place to find a job with almost 80 people for every vacancy. Adzuna identifies nursing as a rare bright spot in the city, with more than a third of the city’s advertised vacancies within the healthcare sector.

Stoke-on-Trent came second with 72 jobless people for every vacancy, followed by Sunderland at 53 and Southend at 44. The Essex coastal resort was the only southern region present in the bottom ten.

Conversely, only one area in the top ten places to find a job was outside of southern England, emphasising a stark north/south divide.

The Adzuna figures placed Aberdeen top of the chart for the easiest regions to find a job. The Scottish city has more vacancies than unemployed people with 0.88 job hunters chasing each position. This relatively strong state is down to the area’s oil and gas industry – a sector that has vacancies at 18 times the national average.

Reading came in second with just over one jobless person for every vacancy, followed by Cambridge, then London, Milton Keynes and Oxford.

Source: Adzuna

Hotspots and black holes

Adzuna identified engineering, IT and sales & marketing as the most in-demand job sectors nationally, with IT and engineering boasting the highest above-average salaries.

Relative to its population, Manchester emerges as the city with the highest demand for marketing & sales jobs, followed by Maidstone and Leeds. Newcastle and Swindon come out bottom.

Cambridge and Reading lead the way for IT jobs, while Maidstone and Liverpool emerge as the cities with the least demand for positions in this sector.

Construction jobs are most in demand in Aberdeen and Derby and least in Liverpool and Glasgow. And for vacancies in the finance sector, Edinburgh and Glasgow lead the way.

Hotspots: Top cities by demand per sector

Black holes: Bottom cities by demand per sector

Source: Adzuna

Maximising your chances

So if you do find yourself in a competitive jobs market, here are a few ways to make your application stand out:

Spruce up your CV

Keep your CV concise and accurate with a clear layout. The length will ultimately depend on the stage you’re at in your career. If you’re entering into your first job, one page should be fine, though it’s better to use a second than cram too much text onto one page. That said, if you've been in the world of work for a while, that doesn't mean your CV should start to resemble War and Peace.

Get a friend or relative to check over your CV before you send it off as well. Any grammatical errors, no matter how small, will probably see it binned immediately.

Have a read of How to write the perfect CV for some further tips.

Covering letter

Your covering letter should complement and expand on your CV. In most cases, it will be the first things the employer sees, so you need to get it right. Be clear about why you’re the right person for the job and explain how your skills marry up with the job requirements.

And always, always write a new cover letter for each vacancy. If you can’t be bothered to put in the effort on your application, why should the employer bother to give you a job?

Clean up your profile

Most employers will check up on candidates online when vetting applications. So make sure you delete any unprofessional tweets, Facebook statuses or photos.

Keep applying

Getting a job in this current climate is, among other things, a numbers game. So apply for as many vacancies as possible.

Know the employer

When you do land an interview, make sure you’ve researched the company and the role. Scour the employer’s website, check up on company reports and read up on major rivals.

Your tips

What are your top tips on landing a dream job?

Let us know using the comment box below.

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