Ofir remaining relevant in an economic downturn

Turbulence ahead in the labour market

The world is changing. Admittedly, it is changing all the time, but these days, it seems as if the speed with which it changes has been cranked up into a higher gear than usual. We are seeing economic change, social change, political change – it is across the spectrum: not much is as it used to be. The world is in overdrive.

Zooming in on the labour market, we have been noticing a slowdown, and this September, it was reflected in a seventeen per cent drop in the job ad market.

“However, we note that the market is falling more than our turnover which, in the third quarter, still maintained a growth rate of 3.4 per cent compared to the same period last year. Ofir is the type of business that’s sensitive to economic fluctuations, but we’re fortunate to have quite good ballast in the form of fixed agreements and many loyal customers who buy from us again and again,” says Karsten Vikke, CEO of Ofir.

CEO Karsten Vikke, Ofir.

We are entering a time when, more than ever, the focus will be on costs. Companies will hold on to their money and some will also recruit less.

The labour market will likely remain under pressure in the longer term

Despite the current slowdown in the jobs market, which is expected to cause unemployment to rise and the number of jobs to fall, the megatrend remains unchanged: the outlook is for a labour market under pressure with low unemployment. This is confirmed by, for example, the forecasts published by the Danish central bank.

There have never been as many people employed in Denmark as there are right now. At the same time, there are many unfilled vacancies. This applies to the public sector and many sections of the private labour market too.

“The candidates may not need to possess all the necessary skills from the outset. We’ve moved from a battle for talent and skilled specialists to a battle for employees in general,” Vikke explains.

Three to four times more candidates with social media campaigns

On top of this scenario, we have the megatrend of the baby boomers retiring soon and being succeeded by rather small cohorts. This leads to further skewing of the age profile of the labour force and to labour shortages becoming a major challenge in the coming years.

“Our products and services on social media help to attract more qualified applicants, and this is as relevant in an upturn as it is in a downturn. We call it modern job advertising: we get three to four times as many visitors reading a post when we strengthen the channel mix and also reach passive job seekers, often those already in work. They need to be influenced several times, and we have cost-effective tools to do just that,” Vikke concludes.

The number of Ofir’s job campaigns on social media has increased in 2022, which is in line with the target to strengthen Ofir’s position as market leader on the platforms.