5 killer stats to start your week

We arm you with all the stats you need to prepare for the coming week and help you understand the big industry trends.

1. YouTube viewership approaches saturation point in the UK

The UK’s YouTube viewership is approaching saturation point, with more than 90% of digital video viewers visiting the platform regularly.

Likely due to its presence across the Google platform, about six out of 10 people in the UK (that’s about 40.4 million people) will watch video content via the YouTube app or website at least once a month. Of those that watch digital video, 90.6% will watch video on YouTube.

YouTube’s monthly users is expected to climb to 42.5 million by 2021.

Despite an increasing challenge from the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, eMarketer senior analyst Bill Fisher says YouTube viewership isn’t going to drop away, but it will face have to compete like never before.

Source: eMarketer

2. Consumer confidence on the rise

British consumers were more upbeat in January, with consumer confidence up four points, although it is still in negative territory, coming in at -9.

All the measures of consumer confidence saw an increase, the first time in two years there has been a rebound in levels of optimism across the board.

The major purchase intent saw the biggest increase, up five points to a score of 1.

However, the improved figures have been described as more likely to be a “temporary blip” rather than a sign of a sustained recovery.

Source: GfK

3. Job applications soar across the marketing industry

The marketing industry has experienced a major rush in job applications this January, with application rates soaring by a staggering 93.1% compared to December.

That makes marketing the top sector for job applications, ahead of IT on 93%, manufacturing on 91.1%, accounting with 88.4% and construction at 87.1%.

Businesses were also confident in January, with marketing vacancies up 11.8 year on year.

However, advertised salaries were down 0.2% in January, compared to a year ago.

Source: CV-Library

4. 80% of the world’s internet users are active on social media

The number of internet users in the world has now surpassed the four billion mark, meaning more than half (53%) of the global population is now online.

Of those four billion users, almost 3.2 billion are active on social media.

In the UK alone, 95% of the population now uses the internet, an increase of 5% compared to 2017.

Social media users also grew by 5% during the past 12 months, while Brits now spend almost six hours a day online, with a third of that time spent using social media.

Source: Hootsuite/We Are Social.

5. Lengthy promotions drive shop prices down

Prolonged promotions saw shop prices remain deflationary in January, with prices down by 0.5% year on year in January, compared to 0.6% in December.

The decline marks the 57th straight month of year-on-year deflation.

Deflation in non-food prices eased slightly. In January, non-food prices were 1.9% lower than the previous year, compared to December when prices were 2.1% lower than in December 2016.

Food inflation grew by 1.9% year on year in January, compared to 1.8% in December. This is the highest rate of inflation since October 2017.

Source: BRC/ Nielsen

 

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