Announcements of increases in pay for public-sector workers in the UK may have helped healthcare employers retain staff, according to the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), the trade association for the professional recruitment sector.

Citing data from Broadbean Technology, APSCo said there was a 48% month-over-month decrease in application numbers in July. APSCo said the increase was attributable to news that healthcare workers and others in the public sector are seeing a pay rise.

The Guardian reported public-sector workers will receive a pay rise of at least 6%.

“While it’s no secret that the healthcare sector has faced skills shortages for some time now, the fall in applications that we saw in July isn’t perhaps the negative issue we might initially believe,” APSCo Global CEO Ann Swain said in a press release.

Still, APSCo said the data suggests that healthcare employers continue to struggle to fill roles, and robust recruitment and retention strategies will be crucial.

“With the public sector pay rises announced last month, this fall in people looking to move jobs is indicative of an uptick in staff retention,” Swain said. “However, that doesn’t change the fact that healthcare simply doesn’t have access to enough skills. Retaining workers is only one-half of the issue. Attracting staff is also critically important and if the level of demand that we’re seeing in the UK is to be met, we need to have globally viable access to resources.”