UK Labour Market Insights | April 2023

Trends across the UK

Unique job postings in March decreased by –1.9% compared to the previous month.
This is much smaller fall than in our last labour market insight report – where the nation’s job postings fell by –10.4%.
Throughout this report we’ll see national trends occur across the regions – Education and Training roles increasing and Warehousing roles decreasing.
The Institute for Employment Studies, (IES) found that pay is increasing more in private sectors than in the public sector and hospitality.
The IES also reported, during March, employment went up and economic inactivity edged down, which is good news. However, we continue to see fewer people entering the labour market than exiting. The IES stressed the importance of supporting people in to work, you can read about how our services are supporting the labour market.

During March, unique job postings in London had a minimal decrease of -0.8% compared to February.
Business, Finance & Legal related roles – a sector which takes up 20% of the job postings in the city – decreased by -7.3% compared to the previous month.
IT was another prominent sector that saw a decrease, job listings fell by –11.4% compared to February.
The capital saw growth in some sectors. Following a national trend, Education and Training roles increased across the capital by +10.7% compared to the previous month.

Overall, Scotland saw a +5% increase in job postings in March compared to the previous month.
Lanarkshire saw a decrease of –12.2% in job listings, while Tayside saw an increase in +8.7% compared to February.
Exploring the regions further, North Lanarkshire saw a significant decrease of IT roles (-63.5%) compared to the previous month.
Going against the national trend, Dundee City saw an increase in Warehouse related roles compared to February (+30.8%)

Unique job postings in the North West slightly decreased by -0.7% compared to the previous month.
The majority of areas in the region saw a decrease in job postings. This was partly driven by Greater Manchester – which contains over half of the job postings in the region – having a -2.2% decrease in job postings compared to February.
During March, some areas in the North West saw an increase in unique job postings. For instance, Merseyside saw listings increase by +6.4% compared to the previous month. This was mainly driven by the Education & Training sector, where roles increased by +11.3% compared to February.

Unique job postings in West Midlands slightly decreased in March (-1.6%) compared to the previous month.
Following the national trend, Warehousing related roles in the region saw the biggest decrease amongst sectors, with -17.4% decline compared to February, while Education and Training saw the biggest increase with +5.4%.
Birmingham saw a significant increase in Transport, Logistics and Supply related roles (+ 7.4%) compared to the previous month. We did not see many increases in this sector across other regions.

Across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, unique job postings decreased by -5% compared to the previous month.
Keeping in line with the national trend, Warehousing related roles saw a significant decrease in job postings (-19.3%) compared to February.
Across the region, Rushcliffe saw the biggest decline of overall unique job postings, with a -39% decrease compared to February.
The only sector to see an increase in job postings – across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire – was Education and Training, following the national trend. Roles within this sector increased by +2.7% compared to the previous month.

During March, Wales saw a minimal change in unique job listings, with a minor decrease of –0.1% compared to the previous month.
Following the national trend, Wales saw an +8.2% increase in Education and Training related roles and a significant -14% decrease in Warehousing compared to February.
Cardiff – which contains over a quarter of the jobs in Wales – saw stability among its sectors. Examples include Business, Finance & Legal (-0.4%) Health & Social Care (+3.2%) and Public Services & Administrative (+1.8%).

Unique job postings in South East England decreased by -2.8% compared to February.
Once again, we see the largest decrease of job postings in Warehousing related roles (-11.6%) compared to the previous month. Education and Training related roles increased by +10.1% compared to February.
During March, the majority of sectors in the South East England saw a decrease in job postings. Public Service and Administrative remained stable, with a +0.7% increase compared to the previous month.

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