Jobs Recovery Tracker: Job adverts hit new high in run-up to Christmas

• 210,000 new job adverts were posted in the UK last week, after three of the best weeks for new adverts on record – over 270,000 new adverts were posted in the first week of November
• There were 3.51 million active job adverts last week, another new record high as firms take longer to hire
• Biggest growth in adverts was for prison officers and scaffolders, as well as dentists and vets
• Notable decline in adverts for management roles in the hospitality sector, including publicans, restaurant and catering managers, and hotel and accommodation managers
• Five out of the UK’s top ten hiring hotspots were in Scotland last week, led by East Dunbartonshire
• Local areas with the biggest falls in job adverts were Redbridge & Waltham Forest, the Scottish Highlands and Hertfordshire

The number of active job adverts in the UK continued to grow rapidly throughout November as businesses rush to hire staff ahead of Christmas. According to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC)’s latest Jobs Recovery Tracker, there were 210,000 new adverts posted in the week of 22-28 November. This follows three of the top five weeks for new job postings since the tracker began, with 266,000 new postings between 15-21 November and 274,000 in the first week of the month.

As a result, the total number of active job postings has continued to surge. Last week there were over 3.5 million job adverts live in the UK, with that number having increased by over 500,000 (16%) since the end of October.

Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC, said:

“The growth in job adverts shows no signs of slowing as we reach the Christmas peak. We’ll have to wait and see how this week’s news on the Omicron variant affects the market, with hospitality the sector most likely to bear the brunt of any slowdown in consumer confidence. The downturn in hosptality management roles in this data is more likely to reflect the completion of hiring for Christmas, however.

“More broadly, this is very much a candidate’s market now. Firms need to think about how they will attract staff facing greater competition than ever before. Professional recruiters are a vital tool for businesses at times like these, helping them to find the best staff by reviewing their workforce plans and reaching out to new pools of candidates. Government can help by working with business organisations on skills, immigration and unemployment policies that boost labour supply, helping businesses grow and the UK to prosper.”

There was notable growth in active job adverts across a broad range of sectors in late November. The most significant rise was for prison officers (+21.0%), continuing the trend seen throughout November. Other roles with a notable increase in adverts were scaffolders (+6.9%), dentists (+4.5%), vets (+4.5%) and veterinary nurses (+3.8%).

The education and training sector also saw a number of roles with strong increases in adverts, including school secretaries (+4.9%), careers advisers (+3.5%), and special needs teachers (+3.4%).

On the other hand, the largest decline in job adverts was for publicans and managers of licensed premises (-20.8%). There were notable decreases for a number of management roles in hospitality, including restaurant and catering managers (-7.7%), hotel and accommodation managers (-7.1%), and catering and bar managers (-6.8%).

While last week’s top hiring hotspot for the UK was the Isle of Wight (+7.0%), five of the top ten areas with the highest growth in job ads were in Scotland. East Dunbartonshire led the way (+5.5%), followed by East Lothian and Midlothian (+4.1%) and Edinburgh (+3.4%).

In contrast, the Scottish Highlands were at the other end of the scale, with a 17.7% drop in active job postigs. The other local areas with the biggest falls were Redbridge & Waltham Forest (-27.6%), Hertfordshire (-15.0%) and the Gwent Valleys (-9.9%).

John Gray, Vice President, UK Operations at Emsi Burning Glass, said:

“The number of new job postings, whilst slightly lower than we’ve seen in recent weeks, remains significantly higher than before the start of the COVID crisis and above most of 2021. Whilst this can be seen as an indication of business confidence, we know from other data sources as well as anecdotally that many employers are really struggling to hire. Solving this situation will require employers to be more proactive in their attempts to attract and retain employees – including looking at things like salaries being offered, hiring bonuses, on-the-job training, career progression, and other benefits of working for the company – and also in recognising the need to communicate these things clearly and effectively to prospective employees in job advertisements.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

1. The Jobs Recovery Tracker is produced by the REC in partnership with Emsi, using their Job Postings Analytics data which is harvested from tens of thousands of job boards. Data was harvested between 15 and 28 November 2021. For more details, see the attached annexes which, in league table format, detail the top and bottom ten county/unitary authorities for growth in job postings and growth by occupation type.
2. ‘Active’ job postings are those which were live online during the specified time period. ‘New’ job postings are those which were added to the active stock during the specified time period.

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About the REC

The REC is the voice of the recruitment industry, speaking up for great recruiters. We drive standards and empower recruitment businesses to build better futures for great candidates and themselves. We are champions of an industry which is fundamental to the strength of the UK economy.

Find out more about the Recruitment & Employment Confederation at www.rec.uk.com.

About Emsi

Emsi’s goal is to help local, regional and national economies function more effectively through helping people make better decisions relating to the world of work. To achieve this, we employ a team of expert economists, data scientists and software programmers to build a dataset that is highly granular, extremely robust, and easy to use. Emsi was founded in Idaho in 2000 and now serves clients in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Find out more at www.economicmodelling.co.uk.

ANNEXES

Top ten and bottom ten county/unitary authorities for growth in job postings:

Top ten and bottom ten occupations by growth in job postings:

Key indicator occupations