ApplyInsights: High-Skilled UK Job Vacancies Hit All-Time High

Job vacancies in the UK continued to reach record highs in January 2022,¹ representing a huge opportunity for international students.² There were nearly 1.3 million jobs that needed workers in January 2022. And one survey found that 71% of international students plan to stay and work in the UK after graduation.³

Many of these are high-skilled positions, in fields such as healthcare, science and technology, finance, communication, administration, and education. Indeed, 31 high-skilled jobs—such as scientists, engineers, and software development⁴—currently qualify on the shortage occupations list for a Skilled Worker visa. International students may be the key to filling the UK’s employment needs, particularly as the UK Graduate Route helped fuel a record-breaking year for international enrollment in 2020-21.⁵

The UK is a desirable country to work in with its diverse culture, relatively competitive salaries, and highly-developed employee rights.

In today’s ApplyInsights, we delve into the most recent data about select job vacancies in the UK and how it relates to international students. What high-skilled fields show a high need for workers that international students might take advantage of? Are these vacancies temporary, or a continuation of long-running trends? Join us for answers to these questions and more.

A Decade’s Long Climb in Job Vacancies

With nearly 1.3 million job vacancies in the UK in January 2022, we must ask: is this an outlier related to the pandemic or Brexit, or will substantial employment opportunities continue moving forward? The chart below might help find an answer:

The COVID-19 pandemic created volatility in the UK’s job market. Vacancies plummeted by 24% in the first year of the pandemic compared to the previous year. However, by January 2022, the need for workers skyrocketed, more than doubling that of January 2021 and setting a new record.

Yet the pre-pandemic data shows that job vacancies climbed steadily over several years. Vacancies climbed from just under 500,000 in January 2013 to just over 800,000 in January 2020, representing an increase of 62%. Brexit contributed to this: from January 2017 to January 2019, job vacancies increased 14% following the Brexit referendum in June 2016, as many workers from the EU opted to leave the UK.

Thus, while the massive, COVID-related spike will inevitably begin to reverse at some point, the data suggests that in the long term, the number of jobs available for workers will continue to grow.

We also looked at the data going back to 2000, and found this trend to be consistent:

Employers may be frequently looking for employees, but does that necessarily relate to job opportunities for international students? Let’s dive deeper into some of the high-skilled vacancies in the UK.

Healthcare and Social Work Always in Demand in the UK

With more than 200,000 job vacancies in January 2022, the human healthcare and social work industry had the highest need for workers. The chart below shows that the industry’s need for workers is not simply a byproduct of COVID-19:

Prior to the pandemic, job vacancies for healthcare and social work more than doubled from January 2013 to January 2020. Also, since 2000, healthcare and social work has accounted for at least 10% of all job vacancies in the UK every year. This number has varied between 16% and 21% since January 2017, as Brexit has particularly hurt the field.⁶ Indeed, since the Brexit referendum, the field has taken the top spot for the most vacancies in four of the past six years.

Combined, these trends show that the need for healthcare and social workers has existed for decades in the UK, and has been exacerbated by the effects of Brexit, which the UK will continue to grapple with indefinitely. Thus, the likelihood of these jobs fading away in a post-pandemic landscape is very low.

That’s good news for students interested in pursuing a career in this field. The UK hosted more than 132,000 international students studying human healthcare and social sciences in the 2020-2021 academic year.⁷ This represented a growth rate of 11% compared to the previous year, and accounted for 22% of all international enrollments in the UK.

There are currently 15 healthcare and education jobs on the shortage occupation list for a Skilled Worker visa. With 72,000 vacancies in January 2022, the education industry accounted for the eighth most vacancies among all industries.

It should be noted that there is heavy competition in this field due to a large domestic student body. More than 818,000 students from the UK enrolled in human healthcare and social work programs in 2020-21. This means that international students accounted for only 14% of all enrollments in this field in 2020-21, and as a whole, there were 4.6 enrolled students per job vacancy.

Professional Scientific and Technical Activities Also Need Workers

The professional scientific and technical activities industry is also in persistent need of skilled workers. The chart below shows that, in January 2022, job vacancies reached 129,000, representing 93% year-over-year growth.

As we can see, there has been a continuous demand for workers in professional scientific and technical fields in the UK. While there may be the occasional dip in vacancies, as a whole, the field has climbed upward since the global financial crisis: pre-pandemic, the number of vacancies grew by 80% from January 2011 to January 2020. Indeed, this area has accounted for either the third or fourth most job vacancies in the UK since January 2011.

For international students, this is an exciting trend. More than 144,000 international students studied scientific and technical fields at UK institutions in the 2020-21 academic year.⁸ This represented a growth rate of 13% compared to the previous year, and accounted for 24% of all international students enrolled in the UK.

In January 2022, professional scientific and technical activities accounted for 10% of all job vacancies in the UK.

Additionally, there is a bit less competition for these jobs compared to the healthcare and social work industry. More than 353,000 domestic students studied scientific and technological fields in 2020-21. This means that international students accounted for 29% of all enrollments, and as a whole, there were 3.9 enrolled students per job vacancy.

A Glance at Other High-Skill Job Vacancies for Students

Let’s take a quick look at some other fields that require skilled workers and which international students might help fill. You can toggle individual fields by clicking on the legend:

The need for workers in these four fields has stayed consistent since January 2017.

Each position accounted for between four and seven percent of all job vacancies in the UK. Vacancies more than doubled for three of the four industries in January 2022 compared to the previous year, with education trailing at 71% growth. Thus, there are many career opportunities in the UK for students outside of healthcare and social work or science and technology fields.

29% of all international students in the UK studied business and management in 2020-21.

Key Takeaways

Although the record number of vacancies for skilled jobs in the UK presents an exciting opportunity for international students, it should be noted that there is some work to be done on the education-to-career transition. One study found that, for students before they arrived on campus, 82% ranked receiving career support as important or very important, and 92% said the same of employability skills, when it came to choosing a university in the UK. However, only 52% of enrolled students said their university did a good job providing career support.⁹

Here are our recommendations on how to close that gap moving forward:

• Students: an industry research project suggested conceptualizing the education-career relationship as a continuous ramp rather than a set of steep stairs.¹⁰ This means education and careers are not separate things, but rather exist as the same path. Try to find out what external relationships your institutions might be able to help you leverage, as these can often make the difference for a successful transition from education to employment.
• Recruitment partners: Another survey found that speaking to currently enrolled international students can help prospective students leverage information about campus safety, diversity, and career opportunity in their decision-making.¹¹ RPs should help facilitate these conversations, which can be an important tool for students to find the best individual fit for their study abroad experience. RPs should also ensure they counsel the academic needs of the applicant in the context of career aspirations and plans.
• Institutions: The survey above also found that students are now prioritizing a positive and successful study abroad experience rather than the location or ranking of the institution. This means that the career opportunity and return on investment that an institution offers is more important than ever. Institutions must continuously review their career building support systems, and the accessibility therein, to ensure they remain globally competitive.

Published: March 8, 2022

About the ApplyInsights Team

FOOTNOTES:

1. Office for National Statistics (ONS), Vacancies and jobs in the UK: February 2022. 15 Feb 2022.

2. Note that ONS tracks job vacancies by quarterly intervals, such as January to March, February to April, or March to May. For the purposes of this article, we will be referring to the last month of the quarterly interval only. So, as an example, the latest data release shows vacancies from November 2021 to January 2022, and we refer to this interval as “January 2022.”

3. ICEF Monitor, Most international students say career supports a big factor in their choice of institution. October 2021.

4. Note that healthcare and education are on their own separate occupation shortage list.

5. It is generally recommended that international graduates should pursue the Graduate Route immediately to stay in the UK. After this, the benefit of the Skilled Worker Visa is that applicants are more likely to be approved.

6. Nuffield Trust, Understanding the impact of Brexit on health in the UK. 22 Dec 2020.

7. HESA, What do HE students study?. 10 Feb 2022. We have accumulated the following study categories as human healthcare and social work: medicine and dentistry; subjects allied to medicine; biological and sports sciences; psychology; and, social sciences.

8. Data courtesy of HESA. We have accumulated the following study categories as professional scientific and technological activities: physical sciences; mathematical sciences; engineering and technology; computing; and geography, earth and environmental studies (natural studies and social sciences).

9. ICEF Monitor, Most international students say career supports a big factor in their choice of institution. October 2021.

10. AGCAS, ISE, Wonkhe, and Handshake, Careers 2032. Spring 2022.

11. ICEF Monitor, Surveys show that career outcomes outweigh rankings for many prospective international students. October 2021.