New report highlights Greater Manchester’s most in-demand jobs

A new report, published by Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC), has highlighted the most in-demand jobs in Stockport and across Greater Manchester.

The analysis of job vacancies across all ten boroughs of the city-region has been carried out as part of GMCC’s work on Greater Manchester’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP).

In their update report of the LSIP, GMCC has revealed ‘Teaching Assistant’ is the role with the most vacancies across Greater Manchester, with ‘General Nurse’ and ‘Social Care Worker’ both making the top 5 for the city-region as a whole, and in seven out of ten boroughs, including in Stockport where they were the first and third most in-demand job by the borough’s employers respectively.

Accountants were most in-demand in Bolton, while in Manchester, Software Developer, was the most sought-after job title for employers. In Stockport, the job roles with the highest number of vacancies were:

1. General Nurse
2. Teaching Assistant
3. Social Care Worker
4. SEN Assistant
5. Manager
6. Customer Service Adviser
7. Assistant
8. Administrator
9. Engineer
10. Cleaner

Data gathered by GMCC in the report will be used to put together recommendations for colleges and training providers to bridge skills gaps and ensure there are enough people with the correct skills to fill vacancies.

Part of their report also focuses on apprenticeships, analysing the number of apprenticeship starts in key training areas within the construction, manufacturing, health and social care, and digital sectors. Areas such as retrofitting, heat pump installation and steel trades such as welding do not currently have enough apprentices on programmes to meet demand and there are more apprenticeship standards required.

Commenting on the findings from the report, Chris Fletcher, Policy Director at GMCC and Contract Director for the Greater Manchester LSIP, said:

“We’ve highlighted the most sought-after roles in Greater Manchester as part of our work on the Local Skills Improvement Plan to show where the local priorities should be in terms of training and skills. We’re currently working with colleges and providers across all boroughs to implement our findings and plug these skills needs.

“As part of our research, we’ve also been speaking to employers across a range of different sectors about their skills and recruitment difficulties. Some of the hiring challenges that businesses have highlighted include a lack of awareness amongst younger people about the range of careers in different industries available to them. Others reported in new and existing staff a lack of people management and leadership skills, which was prevalent across all sectors. All of our findings will be summarised in the second iteration of the Greater Manchester Local Skills Improvement Plan, which will be published in the summer, but we would urge employers who are struggling to find the appropriate skills to get in touch.”

Job vacancy data was taken from Adzuna, a labour market intelligence platform; analysis looks at the period from May 2023 – October 2023. GMCC’s full LSIP Update Report is available to read online.