The UK’s national lockdown is dragging the jobs market into a double dip decline after the recovery in the number of vacancies slipped into reverse, according to new data released by the world’s largest job site, Indeed.
The analysis of the number of jobs listed on Indeed each week since February 1st 2020, reveals that the latest lockdown has halted the steady recovery that began last summer.
The number of available jobs is now 36% below the previous year’s trend, down from the 35% shortfall recorded at the start of 2021. The last time it stood at that level was during the depths of the first lockdown, in April 2020.
The week-on-week drop marks the first time the figure has worsened since England went into lockdown at the start of November.
With redundancies on the rise and official data showing that 1.69m people are out of work and looking for a job in the UK, the slowdown in employers’ demand for staff will increase competition between jobseekers for the roles that are available.
Jack Kennedy, UK Economist at global job site Indeed, comments: “The early signs are that the return of a national lockdown has delivered a setback to the jobs market’s gradual recovery. After plunging during the first lockdown last spring, the number of vacancies posted on Indeed had been improving steadily since the summer.
“January’s apparent reversal of that trend could drag the jobs market into a double dip decline and make life harder for hundreds of thousands of jobseekers, as employers once again batten down the hatches.
“The rapid roll-out of the Government’s vaccination programme is vital, both for public health and for the health of the economy – particularly its ability to create jobs.
“Several healthcare professions such as dentistry, nursing and medicine are still showing robust hiring trends, but vacancies are becoming scarcer in other industries hit hard by successive lockdown restrictions.”
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