Employment growth is expected to continue in the second quarter of 2013 – but will present job seekers with a “battleground”, according to a survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The organisation’s findings reveal that even in the low-skilled sector of the market, a huge 45 applicants are chasing every job. Meanwhile, the median number of candidates for medium-skilled jobs is 29, with 10 applicants pursuing every highly skilled vacancy.

That rich selection of potential employees has resulted in companies making broad-stroke decisions when it comes to selecting new workers, with 14% of companies not even considering those who have recently left school and 11% choosing not to employ applicants who are long-term unemployed. While that may be understandable in light of employers’ preferences for applicants that have notched up experience and are coming straight from other jobs, CIPD is concerned that this may lead other talented candidates to be overlooked.

CIPD labour market adviser Gerwyn Davies said that employers “should see it as an opportunity to draw on a wider pool of talent”, adding that they should take care not to “inadvertently screen out candidates of different ages or backgrounds for the wrong reasons, for example, by requiring degrees for roles where they are not needed. Such an approach would marginalise young people most and add to the pool of wasted young talent”.

James Reid, managing director of enterprise solutions provider SuccessFactors, warned that restrictive approaches to hiring could create a “lost generation” of people whose professional and personal development has been severely hampered by being out of work. “We must not only identify industries that will hire our unemployed,” he said, “we must also give them the skills and confidence to succeed.”

The latter point is clearly an issue for the government to consider – but companies looking to hire should also take Davies’ points onboard and ensure that they don’t generalise groups of applicants, but judge each individual on their merits instead. They may just be ideal new employees.

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