Companies appear to be putting concerns over high inflation to one side when it comes to their recruitment plans, with job adverts remaining at consistently high levels.
In the week of the 6th-12th March there were 205,947 new job postings, 1.5% higher than the week before, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and Lightcast’s latest Labour Market Tracker. Using this data, we have visualised the growth in job adverts in the UK by local authority.
Across the UK, three out of the top 10 hiring spots for the week of 6th-12th March were in London: Lambeth (+12.8%), Redbridge and Waltham Forest (+9.9%), Lewisham and Southwark (+9.8%). Other areas which saw notable increases in job adverts in the time period were Gwynedd (+13%), Berkshire (+11%) and Highland (+11%).
On the other hand, North Lanarkshire (-8.8%) saw the largest decline in job adverts, followed by Torbay (-2.7%), Isle of Wight (-1.7%), Northumberland (-1.5%), and Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire (-1.4%).
The number of active postings in this time period saw an even greater increase, with a 5% jump to 1,447,095. The number of active job adverts has been stable around and above 1.4 million since the beginning of 2022, reflecting the high demand from employers.
Occupations with notable increases in job adverts in the week of 6-12 Mar 2023 include clergy (+17.6%), plasterers (+13.6%), financial and accounting technicians (+12.9%), archivists and curators (+12.6%), secondary education teaching professionals (+12.6%), production managers and directors in construction (+11.7%), and scaffolders, stagers and riggers (+11.5%).
On the other hand, postal workers, mail sorters, messengers and couriers (-12.3%), roundspersons and van salespersons (-6.2%), precision instrument makers and repairers (-0.2%), telecommunications engineers (+0.1%), and dental nurses (+0.4%) saw the biggest weekly decline or slowest growth in job adverts.