According to the Recruitment & Employment Confederationโs latest Jobs Recovery Tracker, there were 192,000 new job adverts posted in the week of 21-27 June, giving a total of 1.55 million active job postings in the UK at the end of June.
The data shows that the higher rate of growth in job postings driven by the re-opening of industries that were shut during the pandemic, like the hospitality and leisure sectors, has now levelled off to a steady rate, higher than to the levels weโve seen before the pandemic began in March 2020.
Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC, said:ย โSustained momentum in our jobs market is great news, but vacancies and unemployment donโt just resolve themselves โ it takes support to help people find their new role. Rising job adverts for roles that require key skills to get hired โ from IT to haulage โ highlight the ongoing need to put the skills and job search support people need in place. Tackling this mis-match, in the context of a tightening labour market, should be a priority for government and businesses, working together.
โWe need to act now to make sure we do the right thing for jobseekers and our economy. That means a plan that reforms the skills system by listening to business about what is really needed, like changes to the apprenticeship levy. It also includes ensuring job search support programmes are effective and get people to work quickly. And it should acknowledge where shortages are so severe our only option is adding roles to the immigration shortage occupation list, which is overdue a refresh.โ
In the week of 21-27 June, market research interviewers (+15.7%) was the occupation with the highest weekly increase in active job postings. There was also a growth in adverts for teaching and other education professional (+13.6%), school midday and crossing patrol occupations (+8.2%) and school secretaries (+6.3) due to the likely seasonal demand within the education sector.
At at local level, Thurrock (+4.9 %) was the top hiring hotspot in the week of 21-27 June, while other local areas in the UK have recorded a more marginal increase. With seven out of the top ten areas for growth in active job postings London has finally started to pick up on other local areas in the UK.
On the oposite side of the spectrum, East Dunbartonshire (-10%) saw the steepest fall in active job postings, followed closely by ย Isle of Anglesey (-8.3%). The next four areas on the list all came from Northern Ireland. Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (-7.2%), Ards and North Down (-7.0%), Mid Ulster (-6.6%) and Fermanagh and Omagh (-6.2%).
Matthew Mee, Director, Workforce Intelligence at Emsi, added:ย โAt 192,000 new job postings in the last week, employer demand continues to track above levels seen just before the shutdown of the economy in March 2020, when there were around 180,000 new job postings per week. Perhaps the most noticeable shift in this last week is in London and the South East.
โBoth these areas had seen the biggest regional falls in employer demand over the last year, but this weekโs ten hotspots for growth are dominated by local authorities in these regions, such as Thurrock, Haringey and Islington, Croydon, Tower Hamlets, and Westminster. Despite this, London as a whole is still tracking behind March 2020 levels, and so it remains to be seen whether the growth seen in these areas this week is a blip, or part of a longer-term trend in which we see employer demand in London and its commuter belt return to pre-Covid levels.โ
