Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsJob creation and lossesLabour marketSkills shortagesLabour turnover

Job vacancies top one million for first time

by Ashleigh Webber 14 Sep 2021
by Ashleigh Webber 14 Sep 2021 The largest increase in vacancies was seen in accomodation and food services
Ceri Breeze / Shutterstock.com
The largest increase in vacancies was seen in accomodation and food services
Ceri Breeze / Shutterstock.com

Job vacancies have risen above one million for the first time since records began and now far exceed pre-pandemic levels, but skills shortages are still a cause for concern.

There were 1,034,000 jobs on offer in June to August 2021, some 269,000 more than the previous quarter and 249,000 more than were available in January to March 2020, the latest labour market figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

There was an increase across all industry sectors, with the majority  seeing the highest number of jobs available since records began in 2001. The largest increase was seen in accommodation and food services, where the number of jobs on offer rose by 75.4% (57,600).

There were 3.4 vacancies for every 100 employee jobs, also a record high.

While the headline jobs market figures, alongside the rise in the number of payrolled employees (29.1 million) and a drop in the unemployment rate (4.6%), suggested that the UK jobs market was recovering after a year of uncertainty, industry bodies highlighted that many of the additional jobs were unlikely to be permanent and that hiring difficulties remained.

CIPD’s senior labour market advisor Gerwyn Davies drew attention to the fact that the number of temporary jobs had risen by 9% since the onset of Covid-19, with the number of temporary workers in employment rising to a five-year high (1.36 million).

“The sharp increase in temporary employment suggests that there’s more employers can do to address rising labour shortages. Candidates want more than a job; they also want some level of security after such an uncertain period. Rather than sitting on the fence, we need employers to bite the bullet and make more permanent hires where they can, to give candidates confidence and to fill the huge number of vacancies out there,” said Davies.

“As well as creating more permanent roles, employers should consider a range of tactics to make their roles more attractive to candidates. For example, through improved pay and working conditions and flexible working options.”

Recruitment

EU jobseeker numbers begin to recover

Costa tops up wages as it plans to lure 2,000 staff

Record increases in starting salaries as candidate supply plummets

Dr Joe Marshall, chief executive at the National Centre for Universities and Business, said: “As was the case last month, today’s statistics show a disproportionately high number of vacancies, alongside large numbers of people still furloughed and unemployed.

“There are worrying signs that employers across a multitude of sectors are currently facing difficulty in hiring. Businesses and higher education providers are therefore voicing serious concerns that we are facing a skills mismatch.”

Recruitment and Employment Confederation chief executive Neil Carberry said most individual sectors still had vast numbers of unfilled jobs, which could hamper their recovery.

He said: “There are a number of things we can do to solve this crisis. Government has convened a cross-department forum to tackle these shortages, but this will only be effective if industry experts are involved as well.

“Government must work with business to improve training opportunities for workers to transition into the most crucial sectors, and allow some flexibility in the immigration system at this time of need. And while businesses are raising salaries in many sectors, they must think more broadly about how they will attract and retain staff through improved conditions, facilities and staff engagement, working with recruiters, who are the professional experts in all of this.”

Although the unemployment rate has fallen, the number of people who have been unemployed for more than a year has risen by 34,000 on the previous quarter.

Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said: “Today’s figures confirm that the jobs recovery is continuing to gain speed. However they also show that we’ve seen the biggest fall in the size of the labour market since the early 90s recession. Officially, there are still more than half a million fewer people either in work or looking for work than before the pandemic began, although furlough will be pushing the actual figure closer to a million.

“With vacancies setting new records, the biggest risk that we’re now facing is not enough workers rather than not enough jobs. At the same time, there are more than six million people outside the labour market because of ill health, caring or studies. So we need to be doing far more – government and employers – to help more of these people to get into work.”

Madison Kerr, an economist at Pro Bono Economics, said more should be done to help those with lower qualifications and disabilities to find work. “With the government focused on levelling up, it is important to recognise the different challenges across the country. Employment rates have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels in both Wales and the East of England. But they remain some way off that mark in many other parts of the country, with the East Midlands and North West performing particularly weakly,” she said.

“The task of supporting these vulnerable groups will fall to charities that are straining more than ever to aid those hardest-hit by the pandemic. The role of the social sector in this recovery is vital to the government’s priorities of levelling up and ‘building back better’.”

Recruitment and resourcing opportunities on Personnel Today


Browse more recruitment and resourcing jobs

Ashleigh Webber
Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is editor at OHW+ and HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support. Prior to joining Personnel Today in 2018, she covered the road transport sector for Commercial Motor and Motor Transport magazines, touching on some of the employment and wellbeing issues experienced by those in road haulage.

previous post
Teacher unfairly dismissed after ‘locking’ pupil in ‘haunted’ cupboard
next post
Morrisons to slash sick pay for unvaccinated workers

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

July saw highest number of job adverts for...

12 Aug 2022

Economic outlook slows hiring despite skills shortfalls

5 Aug 2022

CIPD: Stop using degrees to screen candidates

3 Aug 2022

Could legacy tech be impacting workers’ health?

29 Jul 2022

NHS workforce faces ‘greatest crisis in history’

25 Jul 2022

Businesses missing out on ‘rebound’ employees

25 Jul 2022

Number of planned redundancies in UK falls by...

22 Jul 2022

Hire quality vs speed: Finding the perfect balance...

21 Jul 2022

Ministers signal ‘light touch’ regulation of AI in...

21 Jul 2022

Women over 50 hesitant to progress due to...

19 Jul 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+