Demand for workers rebounded in January after a lull in the labour market at the end of 2023, according to the latest Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Lightcast Labour Market Tracker.
There were more than 870,000 new job postings in January 2024, and more than 1.8 million active job postings in the UK – a 4.2% increase from December 2023.
Hiring and salaries 2024
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According to REC deputy chief executive Kate Shoesmith the “slight” bounce-back was “only to be expected after the red-hot labour market as we came out of the pandemic, and activity today remains relatively high by comparison to the pre-pandemic period in some sectors”.
She added that businesses were telling the REC they were not feeling confident enough to jump into the kind of investing and hiring they wanted – “because the UK economy has been essentially stuck in one place for 18 months”.
Shoesmith said the 6 March budget was an opportunity to work on the issues holding back broader economic growth and productivity gains. She said: “We need policy interventions that incentivise businesses to invest in those areas that will tackle skills and labour shortages, and reduce economic inactivity.”
The REC highlighted the severe shortage of early education and childcare practitioners, which had seen the number of active job postings increase by 146% on pre-pandemic levels and 5.5% higher than in January 2023. Shoesmith warned that such figures represented a serious risk that young people’s life chances would be impaired. She said: “The government must develop a coherent workforce plan for the UK … a plan that joins the dots between different policies around employment and economic growth is so important.
“The vicious cycle for the economy is that we are unable with these types of vacancies to give children the best chances in life while at the same time relying on these same young people to help us thrive in employment and help overcome labour shortages in the future. Added to this is that without enough childcare provision, many parents cannot return to work even if they want to, putting further strain on the labour market.”
Occupations with notable increases in adverts in January 2024 include quality control and planning engineers (69%), childminders (56%) and probation officers (52%). There was also growing demand for visual merchandisers (who design product displays and store layouts) and related occupations (37%).
Grey collar roles such as prison service officers, driving instructors, postal workers and couriers showed the largest decline in roles from December 2023 to January 2024 (between -29% and -38%).
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