Sales associate is most popular job of 2007

You may not believe it but "Sales associate-GBP7 p/hr" was the most applied for job out of 13 million vacancies advertised by Broadbean last year.

If you thought the most sought-after jobs were in banking, media or sport, think again.

The job advert that received the most applications was a retail sales role offering a maximum wage of seven pounds per hour.

Out of 13 million jobs advertised by Broadbean Technology on behalf of recruiters last year, the "Part Time Sales Associate" role was the most popular receiving a massive 1,219 responses from five different job boards.

The London-based role, advertised on 13 November 2007, was aimed at candidates looking for part time and temporary Christmas vacancies.

Last month data provided by Broadbean's Aplitrak system showed a lack of retail vacancies advertised in the run-up to Christmas but a higher demand from candidates with 36 per cent more applying than the year before.

Broadbean's data also shows that nine out of the ten most popular jobs advertised in 2007 were based in London, few of them advertised any benefits and only two offered salaries above the 30 K bracket.

The most popular jobs advertised were in the admin and secretarial sector closely followed by retail.

The phenomenally high response to the Sales Associate role can be partly attributed to heightened competition over the Christmas period and the way in which the advert was written and laid out.

The sought-after job, for a well-known fashion retailer, was advertised by Easy Web Recruitment, a flat-fee recruiter that sources candidates for a number of retail clients.

Andrew Tybjerg, Marketing Manager at Easy Web Recruitment, said of their success: "It's important to be able to deal with a massive response effectively; our REC-certified resource team produce ads that are concise and always in line with EEA regulations and it seems to have paid off".

Andy Hill, Head of Delivery at Broadbean Technology, added: "These results show that a well-written advert can generate plenty of interest but we were surprised at just how popular the Sales Associate position was; what's also interesting is that so many individuals are going online to look for Christmas temp positions despite the retail warnings".

Broadbean's data also showed that a third of the most popular adverts of 2007 were in the IT sector.

Back to top