School leavers are more optimistic about their job chances compared with new graduates, according to a new research study from reed.co.uk.

The study of 1,367 UK workers revealed that those who didn’t plan to go to university are 10% more optimistic about current job prospects compared with those who attended university.

When asked about regrets for not pursuing higher education, an overwhelming 59% of non-university educated respondents said they had none, with more than a quarter saying they made the most of every opportunity available to them and are very happy with life.

 While one-in-five school leavers believe they learned more at work than any degree could provide, the remaining 12% were just happy to have started earning money at an early age.

Not all graduates see a bleak future for their job prospects, however: those who studied Accountancy, Computer Science, and Linguistics share the most upbeat outlook on the current employment market. 

40% of current university students are positive about future employment prospects, 38% are completely ambivalent, and 22% feel negative about their job chances.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk comments

“In spite of the gloomy economic news we seem to hear most days, our latest employee research reveals a continuing optimism amongst jobseekers, with workers who didn’t attend university among the most positive about the future.  

“Academic achievement is often seen as the best route to securing a good job, but the reality is that our diverse and ever-changing jobs market offers a huge variety of rewarding careers, regardless of educational background.

“By giving workers on-the-job training, either through apprenticeships or other learning programmes, employees can tap into a rich seam of enthusiastic  talent, keen to learn the skills required to help their businesses flourish as the economy recovers.”

Over 40% of UK workers failed to take all of their holidays last year, according to new research by leading job site, reed.co.uk.

Over a quarter were worried they wouldn’t be able to cope with the backlog of work waiting for them on their return, whilst 13% stated that a lack of job security and the fear of layoffs meant they were reluctant to spend time away from work.

Whilst the average UK worker is entitled to at least five weeks of paid holiday every year, only 57% of the 1,600 people surveyed used all of their allowance last year.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk, comments:

“In today’s fragile economy, UK workers are more concerned than ever about job security. Employees are sacrificing holiday in order to stay on top of hectic workloads and impress employers.”

Warnes continues:

“Although this research confirms we’re a nation of highly committed workers,  employers should take care not to overwork staff and ensure they take appropriate levels of leave. The result will be a happier, more motivated and engaged workforce.”

On a brighter note for 2011, 73% of those polled claim they will use all of their leave this year. 26% will holiday abroad, while the remainder will opt to stay in the UK.

Reed Job Index down 4 points to 121.

Job opportunities across the country slipped back for the second month running, down 4 Index points (three per cent) in May compared to April, according to the latest Reed Job Index which stands at 121.

Salaries for new jobs have also slipped down, and are now two per cent lower in real terms than in December 2009 to give a Reed Salary Index of 98.

However year on year employer demand is up 18 points compared to May last year.  UK job vacancies have risen 21 per cent since December 2009 when the Index’s baseline was set at 100, according to the report compiled by the recruitment website reed.co.uk.

Private sector growth is responsible for this increase across the board.  Yet although public sector jobs remain close to half the level they were in December 2009 demand is up 9 points in May, to give a Reed Public Sector Job Index reading of 59.

While job demand has softened across the board compared to the previous month, some job sectors have bucked the trend.   Interestingly consumer-facing sectors – perhaps fuelled by the low pound – have risen most, led by Retail, Leisure and Tourism.  Job demand has also increased in key business services sectors such as Strategy, Consultancy, Transport and Logistics. 

 James Reed, Chairman of Reed and co-author of new book Put Your Mindset to Work comments on the Reed Job Index for May:

“Faced with a triple whammy of pay freezes, price rises and tax increases more people are job- seeking right now. With 97% of employers ranking mindset ahead of skill set, it is particularly important for candidates to stand out and make sure their CVs demonstrate the winning 3G Mindset that employers want.

“Recruits with the right 3G mindset are seven times more valuable, according to our latest research, but as applicant-per-job numbers rise each month employers need to do more to identify the best people when they recruit.”

Put Your Mindset to Work by James Reed and Dr Paul G. Stoltz is published by Portfolio Penguin at £12.99.

Last week saw the winners of the annual reed.co.uk Short Film Competition announced at an exclusive awards ceremony and screening in London.

Now in its second year, reed.co.uk offers filmmakers the opportunity to win one of four cash prizes, including the Grand Prix award of £10,000. 

This year’s competition took reed.co.uk’s ‘Love Mondays’ advertising campaign as its theme.

Over 350 films were entered and a shortlist of 12 was selected and put before a panel of expert judges, which included awards ceremony host, director, Paul Weiland.

The panel also included Film 4 Commissioning Executive, Jo McClellan, and the winner of the first reed.co.uk Short Film Competition, Oscar Sharp, whose short film, Sign Language, went on to win the coveted Grand Prize in the Virgin Media Shorts competition.

The £10,000 Grand Prix went to filmmakers Ben Ridolfi and Phil Derham for their short film, ‘Spread the Word’. You can see the film in full here.

Mark Rhodes, Head of Marketing at reed.co.uk, joined the judges in praising this year’s winning short film:

“Spread the Word is a really ambitious project, which takes an original idea and combines it with stunning cinematography and incredible attention to detail.

“This year’s Grand Prix winning entry captures everything we love about short film.”

The People’s Choice award, voted for by users of reed.co.uk, went to director Jonathan Brooks for his hip-hop music video about a Monday-loving traffic warden, ‘Monday’s a Fine Day’. You can watch it here.

Best Animation, selected by the reed.co.uk team, went to Peter Smith, a novice filmmaker who discovered the competition whilst looking for a new job on reed.co.uk. Catch his clever short, ‘Social Security’, here.

London trio Dan Blacker, Matt Bowron and John Addis impressed the panel with their film ‘Starcrossed’, to take the £1,000 Judges’ Commendation prize.

Mark Rhodes, Head of Marketing at reed.co.uk, continues:

“As well as congratulating all of this year’s winners, our thanks go to the directors, casts and crews who dedicated their time, talent and effort to create such a wonderful selection of films.

“We’re extremely proud to continue reed.co.uk’s association with short film for a second year and hope to see this competition continue to act as a springboard for the enterprise and creativity of emerging filmmakers.”

The winning films and this year’s 12 shortlisted entries can be seen at reed.co.uk/film.

Reed Job Index down 3 points to 125

Job opportunities across the country slipped further back last month, down three Index points (two per cent) in April compared to May according to the report. However, year-on-year employer demand is up 22 per cent to give a Reed Job Index reading of 125.

This means that employer demand has risen 25 per cent since December 2009, when the Index’s baseline was set at 100, according to the report compiled by the UK’s largest recruitment site reed.co.uk.

Following the steep rise in vacancies this Spring, April’s job demand is still 20 percent higher than the level for the whole of last year.   Private sector growth is responsible for this increase, as new public sector jobs remain at only half the level they were when the Index began.

Salaries for new jobs have stayed one percent lower in real terms than in December 2009.  Although this level is unchanged from last month, it means salaries are lagging further behind inflation to give a Reed Salary Index reading of 99.

Job demand in sectors like Banking and Leisure & Tourism has fallen back from the prior month’s record highs.  However other job sectors have bucked the trend and risen up.  Job demand continues to grow across both the manufacturing the service sectors, with increases in Engineering, Customer Service, Estate Agency, Human Resources, IT and Telecoms.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk, comments on the Reed Job Index for April:

“The numbers of new job vacancies fell back down in April, perhaps not surprisingly as the Easter and Royal Wedding holidays led to a disjointed period for UK businesses.

“However, the Reed Job Index remains over 20 percent higher than last year’s level following the steep increase in the first quarter of the year, as reflected in the falling unemployment and rising GDP figures for the same period.

“Clearly business growth has been sustained at a higher level than the last quarter of 2010, but continued recovery remains difficult to predict.”

Reed Job Index down 3 points to 128

Job opportunities across the country slipped back last month, down 3 Index points (2 per cent) in March compared to February according to the report from the UK’s largest recruitment website, reed.co.uk.   However year on year employer demand is up 25 per cent, to give a Reed Job Index reading of 128. 

This means that employer demand has risen 28 per cent since December 2009, when the Index’s baseline was set at 100. Private sector growth is responsible for this increase, with new public sector jobs slipping further back to less than half the level they were when the Index began.

Employer demand continued to rise across ten key private sector job sectors.  These range from industrial areas such as Transport & Logistics (178), Manufacturing (157), Engineering (155), and Construction & Property (124) to services job sectors such as Strategy & Consultancy (198) Estate Agency (120), and Hospitality & Catering (119).   In contrast, the Reed Public Sector Job Index now reads 49.

Salaries for new jobs edged up one point from February to March, to give a Reed Salary Index reading of 99. 

This means that salaries on offer for new jobs are still down one per cent in real terms since December 2009, and continue to lag behind rising inflation.  At the same time a few initial indications of skills shortages have appeared, with salaries above the December base-line and rising in areas such as Administration, Estate Agency, Hospitality & Catering and HR job sectors. 

In Banking, salaries for new jobs have reached their highest level since the Index began, with a Reed Banking Job Index reading of 127.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk, comments on the Reed Job Index for March:

“The sharp rise in job creation witnessed in January and February has slowed, indicating that economic recovery should not be taken for granted.  Indeed, rising inflation, rising unemployment figures and international turbulence have been reminders that the economy remains fragile.

“However job creation is well ahead of last year.  Encouragingly this growth has been spread across a wide range of private sector areas, from Engineering and Manufacturing right through to service sector staff from Strategic Consultants to Catering.  With high job competition keeping salaries flat this is a good time for employers to find the talented people they need.”

The reed.co.uk Short Film Competition 2011 today announced its shortlist, with 12 films chosen from more than 370 entries.

The shortlist in full (alphabetically):

•  ‘A Bunch of Idiots’ directed by Paul Coppack
• ‘Ben & Jackie’ directed by Jason Wingard
• ‘Clocked Off’ directed by Greg Bond
• ‘Liberation ’44’ directed by Paul Cook
• ‘Moments in Time’ directed by Oliver Crawford
• ‘Monday’ directed by James Boughen and Mike Thomas
• ‘Mondays’ directed by Jason Wingard
• ‘Monday’s a Fine Day’ directed by Jonathan Brooks
• ‘Social Security’ directed by Peter Smith
• ‘Spread the Word’ directed by Ben Ridolfi
• ‘Starcrossed’ directed by Dan Blacker
• ‘Under Control’ directed by Mark Drake

The selected films will be put before a panel of judges who will choose the winner of this year’s £10,000 Grand Prix, as well as the Judges’ Commendation award (£1,000).

The shortlist will be available to view at reed.co.uk/film where the public can vote online for the People’s Choice Award (£1,000).

Mark Rhodes, Head of Marketing at reed.co.uk, comments on how this year’s competition surpassed all expectation:

“It’s been an absolute joy to see the time, talent and effort that’s gone into making all of this year’s entries. Reaching a shortlist of only 12 films was not only extremely difficult, but involved some fairly painful decisions.

“I’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks on behalf of reed.co.uk  to everyone who’s taken part in this year’s competition.”

Rhodes continues by asking people to get involved and vote for their favourite film:

“We’re excited to be able to show all 12 shortlisted films on reed.co.uk where people can vote for their favourite. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be awarded £1,000.”

All winners will be announced in May at an exclusive awards ceremony and screening. 

Full details of this year’s shortlist, including information on how to vote, can be found at reed.co.uk/film.

reed.co.uk has been named as ‘Experian Hitwise Number 1 Award Winner’, after ranking top for visits to UK job sites in 2010.

Figures released this week confirm that reed.co.uk received a greater market share of visits than any other Employment & Training website in the UK, including Totaljobs, Jobsite & Monster.

reed.co.uk joins other best of breed digital brands to have been awarded number one status for 2010, including, Play.com, Moneysupermarket, LoveFilm, Match.com and Rightmove.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk, comments:

“This achievement has been the result of continued investment in marketing our brand and developing our service, and it’s our clients who benefit most. By attracting more jobseeker visits than any other UK job site, we’re constantly able to deliver recruiters with a diverse selection of candidates with which to successfully fill their vacancies.”

“The new features and initiatives we have planned throughout 2011 will ensure we continue to build on our position as the UK’s number one job site.”

reed.co.uk provides online recruitment services to more than 9,000 recruiters.Over 118,000 vacancies were added to reed.co.uk in February 2011.

Leading UK job board, reed.co.uk, has launched a new job sharing feature to promote vacancies via Twitter and LinkedIn.

The new service, which is being offered free to all recruiters advertising their vacancies on reed.co.uk,  provides the option to share vacancies via the two popular social networking platforms.

When recruiters post a job on reed.co.uk they simply opt to share details via Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, to further extend their online reach.

Mark Rhodes, Head of Marketing for reed.co.uk, comments:

“There’s a lot of hype around the role of social networking in recruitment, which can be pretty baffling for many.

“This is a really simple and straightforward way to let recruiters to start benefiting from the power of social networks to attract more of the right candidates for their vacancies.”

Over 118,000 vacancies were added to reed.co.uk in February 2011, attracting more than 2.25 million applications. reed.co.uk has been the UK’s most visited job site for 17 consecutive months (source: Hitwise).

IT professionals are optimistic about their prospects in the job market, according to new research by leading job site, reed.co.uk.

Three quarters of IT workers believe they’ll be offered the job they want within the next six months, with the same proportion predicting that a growth in technology will give the UK’s job market a boost this year.

High application levels and competition for roles were seen by the 500 respondents as the biggest challenges for landing a new role, whilst more than three quarters said that holding the right professional qualifications would help in their quest for a new job.

Mark Rhodes, Head of Marketing at reed.co.uk, comments:

“We’ve seen signs of a slow and steady recovery in almost all areas of the private sector since the start of the year and it seems IT professionals are especially positive.”

“With companies gearing up for a return to growth, demand for IT staff is on the rise and, with it, a return to skills shortages across the sector.”

The survey, carried out in March 2011, identified a number of areas where jobseekers are looking to gain qualifications. PRINCE2, Cisco networking certifications and Microsoft SQL were amongst the most sought after areas for personal development.

 reed.co.uk currently features more than 110,000 jobs (http://www.reed.co.uk/), including 8,000 in IT, and offers more than 80 IT courses and learning opportunities.