Acorn Recruitment has found that more people applied for pharmaceutical jobs in 2019 than any other sector.

Graduate and trainee posts were still very popular with more than 26 people going for each job advertised with Acorn, while manufacturing and production, administration and secretarial jobs also proved very popular with more than 17 people going for each post respectively.

Data analysts at Acorn have compiled a top ten list of the most popular job sectors in 2019:

  1. Pharmaceutical                                                           30 applicants per job
  2. Graduate and trainee                                                26 applicants per job
  3. Manufacturing and production                               17.2 applicants per job
  4. Administration and secretarial                                17.1 applicants per job
  5. Utilities                                                                         16.8 applicants per job
  6. Real estate and property                                          15.8 applicants per job
  7. Defence and military                                                 15.4 applicants per job
  8. Logistics, distribution and supply chain                 14.3 applicants per job
  9. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG)                    13.9 applicants per job
  10. Social care                                                                   13.5 applicants per job

Pavan Arora, Director of Permanent Recruitment, said of the data:

“It has been a very tumultuous year in the world of recruitment, with unemployment at an all-time low, Brexit still looming and economic uncertainty rife, so it’s great to see that our traditional sectors are still doing so well in both jobs available and the number of applicants.

“With Brexit looking like it’s now a done deal, hopefully businesses can be more confident with what is to come in 2020 and start the new decade on a positive and optimistic note. Certainly, seeing such a buoyant year for posts within manufacturing and logistics is an encouraging sign. We hope to see more in of the same moving into this new decade.”