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The number of job advertisements in the UK has reached a record high with 2.29 million active job postings in the first full week of October. This represents a rise of more than 600,000 since the end of August. According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's latest jobs recovery tracker four out of the UK's top 10 hiring hotspots were in Wales, led by Swansea (+16%). There were only three local areas that recorded declines in active job postings last week – Thurrock (-3.8%), the Shetland Islands (-3.8%) and na h-Eileanan Siar, the local authority covering the Outer Hebrides (-0.2%). Job advert numbers rise by over 600,000 since the end of August to new record high with the week of 4-10 October also seeing 235,000 new job postings, the second highest weekly figure since data collection began. The REC said the growth was UK-wide, with almost every upper tier local authority and occupation in the UK seeing a rise in active job postings last week. It predicted that competition for staff would become ever fiercer as Christmas approached. Predictably, adverts calling for sales and retail assistants (+11.9%) grew in number but 4-10 October saw growth in job adverts across almost all occupations including sports and leisure assistants (+15.3%) and cleaning and housekeeping managers and supervisors (+14.8%). The highest numbers of adverts for 4-10 October were for nurses (about 102,000), programmers and software developers (88,000) and care workers (63,000). Next came chefs and retail sales assistants (both about 45,000).
