idealpeople blog

Well well well readers we’re back. After a short break (no apologies I’m afraid, we’ve been rather busy and have some interesting news to tell you very very soon), we’re ready to pick up where we left off.

We’d thought we’d kick-start the second half of 2008 - awkward economic conditions and all - by giving you all some advice on where to live.

Now, if it’s the quality of schools, house prices or general standard of living you’re looking for, then we’re probably not the right people to be dishing out advice. Instead, we decided to go away and conduct a piece of research of behemoth-proportions to find out where the best place to live is if you’re currently looking for a new position in the technology industry.

We analyzed the amount of jobs currently available in each county (by running searches on job-boards who have full UK coverage) and the amount of people we know who have been looking for new positions in the last 12 months in each county. Using this information, we were able to calculate the potential candidates:jobs ratio (how’s that for elaborate measurement of the week? Do we win a prize?), and using the logic that it’s best to live in a place with loads of jobs and little competition from other people for those jobs, we came up with a list of the ten best places to live in the UK.

Still with us? Good. Here’s the results.

Best Places to Live in the UK Ranked by Potential Candidates:Jobs ratio

1) County Durham - 1.91 potential applicant for every job
2) Lancashire - 2.28
3) Cambridgeshire - 2.84
4) Berkshire - 2.99
5) Avon - 3.64
6) Tyne & Wear - 3.72
7) Surrey - 3.84
8) Gloucestershire - 3.89
9) Hertfordshire - 4.48
10) Hampshire - 4.61

So there you have it - County Durham is the place to be [ed: it’s a mighty fine place too]. Unless, of course you’re looking to hire people to work in County Durham, in which case, you’ll need to run a quick search on the blog and read up on Recruitment Branding, because you’re in for a hard time.

Want to know where your county ranked? Leave us a comment and we’ll let you know.

In the meantime, and given as we quite like shameless plugs and we do recruit UK wide across all areas of technology businesses, why not register your details with us by clicking here, subscribe to the blog by clicking here here or get in touch by clicking here?