Boom in employers stating vaccine requirements in job ads

The number of UK job adverts explicitly requiring candidates to be vaccinated against Covid-19 has grown by 189% over the past three months.

Analysis by job site Adzuna found that 2,324 job ads posted in October 2021 required jobseekers to have had their coronavirus jabs, including in sectors where vaccination is a now, or soon to be, a legal requirement (healthcare, nursing and social care), but also roles in sectors where there is no legal mandate.

Although the number of job ads asking applicants to be vaxxed has grown, proportionally they remain low: only 0.19% of UK job ads in October stated that vaccination was required – roughly one in every 526 roles on offer.

This proportion was up from 0.18% in September (2,161 job ads), and from 0.07% in July (805).

Adzuna predicted that there is likely to be a large uptick in the number of job adverts requiring proof of vaccination in November because anyone who works in a care home in England must now be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Front line health workers in England will also be required to be fully vaccinated by 1 April 2022.

In October 2.03% adverts for jobs in the social care sector and 0.91% in healthcare and nursing specified the requirement.

However, Adzuna found that employers in other sectors were also requiring vaccinations, including charities (0.55% of jobs posted in this sector in October) and domestic help and cleaning (0.26%).

Earlier this year the Equality and Human Rights Commission said that it was “reasonable” for certain sectors, such as health and social care, to require staff to have Covid-19 jabs.

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In the US, employees who work at companies with 100 or more employees will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by January, or get tested for the virus weekly. It is estimated that 84 million workers will be affected.

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