jobs, careers and recruitment

As part of some ongoing research here at reed.co.uk, we’ve been taking a look at jobseekers’ areas of interest when looking for work. And it’s revealed some pretty interesting trends.

Perhaps the most notable has been the marked increase in interest jobseekers are showing in professions traditionally dominated by the opposite sex.

Ask someone to imagine a secretary for a small publishing company and the chances are they would picture a woman. Similarly, if you were asked to imagine a mechanic working for a medium sized vehicle repair centre, you would probably picture a man in overalls.

This is a perfectly reasonable judgement to make. Research over the years has shown that, historically, women have been more highly represented in certain occupations and industries than men, and vice versa. As recently as two years ago, research by the Equal Opportunities Commission revealed that gender barriers were creating “no-go areas” in key occupations.

As part of our analysis, the number of jobseekers registering their interest in each industry sector was compared between April 2006 and April 2007. Overall, there was more growth of interest by females than males in a number of traditionally ‘male’ industry sectors, such as:

- Accountancy
- Banking
- Construction & Property
- Engineering
- Financial Services
- General Insurance
- IT & Telecoms
- Manufacturing
- Scientific
- Transport & Logistics

Additionally, there was more growth of interest by males than females in a couple of traditionally ‘female’ industry sectors, including:

- Admin & Secretarial
- Human Resources
- Leisure & Tourism

So, it seems that women, in particular, are challenging expectations. An occupational gender split has always been a prominent feature of the labour market, but the differences seem to be closing.

Perhaps the changes reflect a reduction in gender stereotyping, both in education and employment, and a steady increase in women’s participation in the workforce and in higher education. What do you think?