Why the capital’s appeal for young professionals may be coming to an end as financial reality begins to bite
Ask anyone who lives in London and they’ll tell you its streets are paved with the remnants of half-consumed kebabs, not gold. And yet the allure of the capital for jobseekers, particularly younger workers, can appear relentless.
The size of the London workforce increased by 10.6 per cent between 2009 and 2013, according to provisional ONS figures, even as the total number of employees in the country as a whole was creeping up by a little over 1 per cent.
Graduate recruiters report that HR professionals are every bit as likely to want to move to the bright lights as their peers in other disciplines. They cite wider opportunities, higher salaries and a more vibrant social life as key motivations.
But examined objectively, London is far from an idyllic place to work. The average commute of 56 minutes is more than double that of a Welsh worker. Research from the Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion found that young people in the capital were more likely to be trapped in a low-paid position than those elsewhere in the country. And while median pay is 27 per cent higher, rents are double the average for the rest of the country. Let’s not even mention the housing ladder.
“There are more candidates in London, and it’s more competitive,” says Noreen Curtin, director at HR recruiter Macmillan Davies’ Manchester office. She believes there have never been more opportunities outside the capital, with overseas investment in regional businesses adding a wealth of new HR roles.
“We’re seeing investors coming in, acquiring smaller businesses. There are HR directors who were forced to look at going to London, who I can now go to and say ‘I have that senior post you wanted in an organisation where they’ve got growth and development.” Networking, she adds, is much easier outside London, where it’s harder to identify definitive events and contacts.
A new survey by recruitment agency The Candidate found that 54 per cent of employees would prefer to work in a northern city, and willingness to relocate to London was far lower than expected.
The BBC’s relocation to Salford has helped change the narrative, but for businesses still worried about losing brains to London the advice is clear: take a leaf out of universities’ books and market the lifestyle benefits of your location, make the obvious points about commuting and cost really stand out in recruitment marketing, and form partnerships with universities so students understand the opportunities they have on their doorstep.