ReleaseWire

The easing of COVID restrictions has allowed many jobs markets to rebound, as businesses look to rebuild teams that may have been decimated during the pandemic - and to bring in new skills to respond to fresh challenges. The US economy added more than 400,000 jobs in the final month of the last quarter, showing just how much demand there currently is for talented people nationwide. Financial recruitment jobs is among those areas where there has been significant recovery following the slowdown that affected almost all sectors during COVID. The net change in financial activities jobs for March this year showed an increase of more than 16,000, according to figures provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The strength of this jobs report indicates strong growth for the year ahead in areas such as financial recruitment jobs. The White House welcomed the strength of the jobs report and said that it underscores the incredible resilience of the US labor market.

Big data analytics in banking and financial services is a market that has huge growth potential. Already, data analytics are being used by banking institutions to monitor and assess high volumes of customer data so as to be able to improve services and strengthen customer relationships. This includes the personalization and customization element of banking that is becoming so vital and, which simply wouldn't be possible without big data analytics as a tool. These analytics provide a broad spectrum of insights to businesses in the banking sector, including gaining a deeper understanding of customer behaviors based on investment patterns, shopping trends, personal financial background as well as how motivated individuals are to invest. Rapid tech developments in this sector over recent years have made big data analytics even more central to business operations and provided many more opportunities for those in data analytics jobs thanks to high adoption rates and continuing market growth.

Clinical operations is an area of recruitment currently experiencing a significant boom, especially when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT). In fact, the latest set of figures shows that clinical operations companies in the US saw the largest growth in IoT roles in the three months ending in February this year when compared to 2021. The numbers show that there are some parts of the world that are funneling more cash into developing IoT infrastructure and ability than others - and North America is right up there, especially in the clinical operations sector. In the three months to February 2021, 46.9% of all IoT clinical trial job ads related to the US. By the end of the same time period this year the percentage figure had increased to 54.6%. The figures show just how dominant the US has become in terms of IoT hiring among clinical operations companies.

A team of researchers from Columbia Engineering and Columbia University Irving Medical Center has solved one of the major issues that has frequently faced researchers when it comes to using engineered tissues for disease modeling and testing drugs. The team has developed a multi-organ chip that is made up of all the essential components of human physiology, from engineered human heart and bone to a vascular flow with circulating immune cells to link everything together. The chip is the size of a microscope slide and can be customized individually to the patient. This will provide researchers with a solution to the biggest issue of medical research, which is that every patient reacts differently. Thanks to the development of this chip, it will soon be possible to personally customize therapy for every patient, taking into account the variations that occur in disease progression and responses to treatment.

There is a new wave of pharma R&D spending happening globally - and particularly when it comes to companies in the US. While there is now limited scope for investing in R&D relating to generic medicines, due to the hot competition around these products, opportunities exist in many other areas, from specialist medicines to biologics. There are many US corporations that have the resources and facilities to focus on this in-house but others don't, which is why we are beginning to see a trend emerging in R&D spending towards outsourcing. R&D and manufacturing processes tend to have a lot of fixed costs, which is why they can be off-putting to handle internally and why there is now enthusiasm to invest in outsourcing them. As a result, companies that specialize in drug innovation and manufacturing are becoming increasingly popular - and this is where a sizable chunk of expanded pharma R&D spending is likely to end up this year.

The Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) market is booming worldwide and forecast to continue expanding thanks to ongoing enterprise solutions growth. In fact, by 2030, the market is expected to be worth $42.6 billion - it was valued at just over $10 billion in 2021. This huge boom is being driven by many different factors, from an increase in cloud adoption in the wake of the pandemic through to the rapid growth in IoT technologies. A spike in the demand for enterprise solutions is also contributing to the positive way in which this market is set to evolve in the coming years. With many of the biggest names in tech - including Google and Verizon - investing heavily in enterprise solutions arms for their business it's clear that this is seen as a sector with huge growth potential. North America is already dominating this market and likely to continue to do so as it expands.

Back in 2021, AstraZeneca bought Alexion Pharma in a $39 billion deal that was something of a landmark in the industry. It was thought that this acquisition would trigger all kinds of antitrust issues, especially in the light of a threatened renewal in antitrust scrutiny, and yet the deal sailed through in April last year. Now, all of the blood, sweat and tears that must have gone into making that deal happen have all proven to be worth it as the purchase of the Boston biotech hub really starts to pay off for AstraZeneca. That's because the first and only long-acting C5 complement inhibitor in gMG, Ultomiris (ravulizumab-cwvz) has gained approval in the US. Due to the purchase of Alexion by AstraZeneca last year that makes AstraZeneca the owner of the approved inhibitor. Following the successful acquisition last year, a new division was set up in the company and it's thought that this has been the driving force behind the approval.

The cost of land necessary for industrial development has made expansion difficult for many in recent years. However, multi-storey construction is set to change that, offering a new way to optimize on available land in urban markets. In most densely populated areas there is an ongoing shrinkage happening when it comes to industrial land alongside a key need for businesses to occupy locations that are close to their customer base. The solution is the multi-storey warehouse, something that isn't often seen in the US, but which is becoming increasingly economically justifiable. There are many benefits to integrating this type of construction, not least that it allows for greater use of a single piece of land by building up. Companies that are looking to deliver to customers within tight windows are attracted to this type of development because it can remain within urban areas, offering distribution facilities with close proximity to customers.

There are a number of key trends that are dominating procurement for 2022. There is, for example, the ongoing need for businesses to invest more in IT solutions, as well as the fact that transparency in supply chains has become vital. Another key procurement trend for 2022 is putting risk management at the center of operations, especially after the challenges of the past couple of years. However, one of the most important trends for 2022 - and one that stands out among the top 5 - is the focus on procurement recruitment. Skills gaps and talent shortages are a general theme right now and this is especially so in procurement. That's why the industry is prioritizing recruitment this year, as well as looking at diversifying the way that this is managed. Alongside building strong permanent workforces there is an emphasis on the support of contingent workers - 70% of executives anticipate hiring more freelancers and contingent workers in the coming two years.

Two players from the world of procurement have joined forces to create the new Rethink Group, expanding reach in both the UK and the US. The first of the two collaborators is Lifecycle Management, an end-to-end provider of contract management services based in Oxford, which focuses on improvements and efficiency through contract and supplier lifecycle. The second is Procura, an award-winning management consultancy that delivers transformation of client procurement functions. The Rethink Group is made up of 80+ professionals across the UK and US and will provide opportunities for both businesses to add depth to their individual offerings. This is likely to include an extension in business lines at Procura, for example, moving from consulting to managed services. Together, the combined forces within the Rethink Group will be able to offer a broader spectrum of options to many more clients across an expanded geographical area.

Cincinnati-based supermarket giant Kroger has been driving a series of recruitment events over the past year. Most recently it has been targeting workers who can support its logistics and supply operations. In June 2021, the business was seeking to add another 10,000 workers and in October last year an additional 20,000. The most recent hiring push, in April 2022, was focused on targeting 23,000 new staff for the business. Kroger hosts hybrid hiring events that are designed to allow it to reach even more people through both virtual and in-person recruitment means. The increase in workforce has become necessary to support the ongoing expansion that Kroger is investing in when it comes to its online grocery service. The partnership with retailer Ocado has played a particularly important role in generating logistics and supply chain jobs at the retailer. Plus, the launch of Kroger delivery in South Florida over the summer will also see another 200 roles that need filling in areas such as logistics and human resources.

Opportunities in Europe's industrial powerhouse are attracting more firms to countries like Germany. Brookfield Investment Management, for example, announced in April of this year that it is focused on increasing its European exposure with a new Frankfurt office. The office could open as early as 2022, as the firm is keen to tap into the growth potential in the region and triple the $120 billion of assets it already holds in Europe. With such a strong industrial base, Germany is an obvious target for Brookfield, which is looking at large industrial assets, as well as German manufacturers in areas such as chemicals and precision-machinery. The office in Frankfurt will be the third that the firm has opened in Europe, as it already has two, one in London and one in Madrid. One of Brookfield's London executives will be moving to Frankfurt in order to head up the new office.

Hiring in Germany's technology industry continues to thrive, with a rise of 1.8% recorded in March of this year. IT hiring has shown strong progress, as many more organisations seek to get support for the accelerated IT transformations that have been undertaken in many different industries since the start of the pandemic. When it comes to IT jobs there are five roles, in particular, that are especially in demand right now. Software and web developers, for example, take up the largest share of IT recruitment activity, followed by database and network administrators and architects. Miscellaneous computer occupations accounted for just over 8% of overall IT recruitment activity in March and computer and information analysts almost 6%. What's clear from these figures is the German technology recruitment activity remains strong - and is likely to continue to do so. This is being bolstered by a number of top companies that continue to hire, including Deutsche Telekom, SAP and Celonis.

Research that has been carried out via a collaboration between Canadian and German researchers has found that new drug combinations may be more effective at treating obesity and diabetes than single drugs. They may also be able to replace many of the more invasive options that are often suggested for these conditions, including bariatric surgery. The research has looked at drugs that control incretins, which are metabolic hormones used in the human body to produce and control insulin. As a result of the research, it has become clear that combining the drug not only means that it is likely to be more effective but also that there are fewer side effects for patients to contend with. Some of the patients taking part in the trial achieved up to a 15% weight loss - this is impressive given that in most trials weight loss of just 5% is considered to be meaningful. Further research is recommended to identify why some individuals respond better to the drug than others.

2022 has already been a positive year for pharma recruitment in Germany. The latest figures show a 9.5% rise in IT hiring activity in pharma between February and March this year and indicate that the industry as a whole continues to thrive. The numbers also show that IT hiring continues to take up a large percentage of overall hiring activity, accounting for 4.87% of total hiring activity in March of this year. Roles, such as software and web developers, database and network administrators and analysts, are all in high demand. There are some companies that continue to dominate when it comes to pharma recruitment activity - Bayer, for example, posted 36 IT jobs in March of this year and other companies, such as Merck and CompuGroup Medical SE & Co are also active. In fact, when it comes to IT hiring for the pharmaceutical industry, the top 5 account for more than 66% of activity and growth.

The crypto market has been growing exponentially over the past year and is increasingly becoming an option for more mainstream financial institutions. Now, Germany's fourth largest bank has confirmed that it is venturing into the territory of digital assets custody and exchange services. Commerzbank is one of many traditional banks in Europe that have recently signaled that it's time for them to make this move. This level of adoption adds to the credibility of crypto currency and demonstrates the steps that conservative banks are now willing to take to ensure their own expansion. Commerzbank has also been working on blockchain projects since 2018. Crypto custody was introduced into the German Banking Act as a new financial service in January 2020 and there is a lot more focus on cracking down on unregulated activity as the infrastructure is created to bring crypto more into the mainstream all over Europe.

UK tech firms are being incorporated at an increasingly fast rate, with 38,000 established in 2021. This is a 62% increase on the year before, which bodes well for enterprise solutions jobs over the coming year. London remains a central hub for all things tech and the highest number of incorporations was in the Capital last year. However, regional growth has also been strong and the West Midlands has been performing especially well with an increase of 61% incorporations over the past 12 months. The North East is not far behind with 59% more incorporations and Northern Ireland has seen a 44% rise. This unprecedented level of tech company incorporations shows just how much of a hub the UK has become for innovators in this field. This is partly due to the impact of the pandemic, during which many more businesses were forced to embrace technology more extensively, and also the development of infrastructure and systems in recent years.

Teesside is set to become a new tech hub in the UK thanks to the multi-million-pound digital facility that has been opened at Middlesbrough College. The centre was officially opened back in April by Microsoft's former Chief Envisioning Officer who said that it would be a transformative resource for people all over the region, whether they are new learners, industry experts or businesses looking to acquire new skills. The facility is cutting edge and is part of the bid that Middlesbrough college made to deliver pioneering new technology qualifications, which has been approved by the government. The new qualifications will be called 'T-Levels' and will be supported by the latest in educational resources, from cyber labs and video editing suites to a games design suite and a comprehensive TV studio. The ethos behind the new centre is to encourage collaboration 'between humans and machines' and the idea that anyone should be able to access technology and training.

Higher rates of turnover and spikes in consumer demand have seen manufacturing organisations hiring at record rates in recent months. The necessity of building a resilient talent pipeline in order to keep filling roles in thriving businesses has become increasingly obvious. This has seen many manufacturing enterprises reportedly using many more diverse methods when it comes to recruitment, such as utilising text recruiting because around 70% of manufacturing job seekers said they prefer to receive a text during the hiring process. Also vital is making commitments to increased diversity, not just due to the benefits this can have in accessing a wider talent pool but also because 40% of manufacturing candidates have enquired about an employer's diversity efforts during a job interview. With around a third of the manufacturing workforce aged 55 or older there are clear incentives for manufacturing organisations in diversifying recruitment approaches in order to find the necessary talent to fill vacant roles.

A new warehouse is being opened in Chippenham by the tech firm Huboo, which will create 400 logistics jobs for the area. Huboo has developed technology that provides online retailers with the tools access and complete end-to-end fulfillment operations and the increased demand for its services has required the firm to add significantly to its capacity. The new 106,000 sq ft facility is not the only expansion that the firm is undergoing, as the announcement about the Chippenham warehouse came shortly after the business expanded its operations in Europe too. Huboo said that Chippenham was the ideal location for the new warehouse because it has great transport links to nearby cities like Bristol and is also very well connected when it comes to ports like Southampton too. The 400 new jobs being created at the warehouse will include roles such as hub manager, site manager and site supervisor.

UK asset management growth has faced a number of challenges in recent times, from weaker markets through to acute competition on fees. Perhaps one of the harshest moments for UK asset and wealth managers was savers and investors pulling back £2.5 billion from UK-domiciled retail funds earlier in 2022. That came after high outflows had already marked the first month of the year. While there has obviously been a negative impact from this there are also positives - and M&A and consolidation in the industry is potentially one of them, as this looks set to drive up asset and wealth manager growth this year. There are a number of mergers and acquisitions that are notable, including Abrdn's acquisition of content platform Finimize and RBC's bid for Brewin Dolphin. Given changes in share prices thanks to the aforementioned conditions there could be a lot more M&A activity yet to come this year where asset and wealth management is concerned.

Fintech is a market on the rise all over the UK, including in Edinburgh where the local fintech community was on the receiving end of a £300 million UK government investment last summer. However, while this might seem like the optimum time for startups to break new ground in the sector it is actually presenting some challenges, primarily when it comes to recruitment. Fintech is a red-hot recruitment market right now and this is making it very difficult indeed for many newer firms to attract the talent necessary to spur growth in 2022. Wage inflation and higher expectations from candidates are two reasons for the market becoming increasingly challenging for startups, as well as the general skills shortages that exist across technology. There is a limited talent pool in fintech and many of the same enterprises are currently fighting over these people, including those that have much more substantial resources than many startups have to offer.

Chip and component shortages for the auto industry have been big news for some time now. However, it's not just in the production of new cars where these issues are having an impact. Many production lines have been hit by these challenges - including the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen - and the result has been far fewer cars coming off the assembly line. A consequence of this emerged earlier this year when prices in Germany's used car market jumped 27% from the year before. The auto market in Germany is the largest in Europe and generally reflective of wider trends. The average cost of a new car is now EUR 31,801, which is the highest on record. Although many manufacturers are not suffering extensively due to these supply chain problems (Mercedes saw an 8% bump in first quarter revenues this year), it is going to put a lot of pressure on consumers who are already struggling with inflation.

YesAsia has collaborated with Geek+ to create a new smart warehouse that will not only be one of the tallest warehouse facilities in the world but also one of the most tech-enabled. The new facility will be located in Tsing Yi, Hong Kong, and will have the highest number of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) deployed in any one warehouse in Hong Kong. E-commerce businesses like YesAsia have faced many challenges since the start of the pandemic and logistics and supply chain management has been up there as one of the biggest. The new warehouse is designed to help the online retailer improve this area of operations and allow for greater efficiency by working with a leading AMR specialist like Geek+. The step is just one example of the ambitious strategy that YesAsia has deployed, integrating greater digitisation and automation across the enterprise to help ensure that the business continues to thrive.

New research has identified that vacancies for fintech talent are on the rise since the pandemic began to wind down, with a wealth of opportunities for those in fintech jobs. In fact, there has been a spike in vacancies of 182%, which means that the fintech talent market is outperforming the broader market by three times. One of the key challenges for many organisations is going to be finding the right talent to fill these positions, as there are major shortages across the tech sector today. Experts predict that the rate of expansion of the fintech market going forward will depend, to a certain extent, on how able enterprises are to find the right people to help their organisation to grow. Adoption of fintech products continues to expand exponentially, while the tech labor market remains tight, so there are major challenges ahead for the firms that are involved in this market.