UK Labour Market Insights | July 2022

Trends across the UK

England, Scotland, and Wales have seen the steepest drop in unique job postings since January 2022 (-8.6%). This downward trend is due to several factors, including economic uncertainty, reports the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).

IT-related roles have seen a considerable decrease in unique job postings, especially in England (-13.2%) in the past month.

Tourism, leisure and arts (-11.6%), and the catering and hospitality sector (-9.3%) have also significantly decreased in unique job postings.

London

South and East London boroughs have seen a higher reduction in overall job postings, -11.5%, compared average of -8.6%
The highest reduction of job postings in June has been seen in the following borrows: Barking and Dagenham (-20.3%), Havering (-18.3%) and Redbridge (-18.2%).
The biggest reduction in job postings was seen in the warehousing sector (-20.1%), whereas the customer service sector saw the smallest reduction in job postings (-5.7%).

Scotland: Tayside and Lanarkshire

two gray people and one orange person standing

Overall job postings in Scotland decreased by 2% in June compared to the previous month.
North Lanarkshire saw a significant reduction of IT job postings (-32.3%) in June compared to May. This is consistent with the national trends.
However, unique job postings in agriculture, environmental and animal care have seen an increase of 9%.

North West England: Cumbria, Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside

The overall number of job postings in North West decreased by –5% in June compared to the previous month. Cumbria and Merseyside saw the highest reduction of job postings (-9.1%).
The North West saw the highest reduction in unique jobs advertised in the tourism, leisure and arts sector (-10.6%).

West Midlands

The West Midlands has seen a drop in unique job postings in June compared to May (-9.4%), with the most significant decrease in Birmingham (-12.7%).
Across the region, IT-related job postings have had the most significant decrease of 2% in June compared to the previous month. However, this is consistent with the national trends.

Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire

Job postings have decreased in East Midlands and South and West Yorkshire, particularly in Nottinghamshire, where the overall decrease is at -16.7%, a significant difference compared to the neighbouring county, Derbyshire (-3.7%).
The biggest reduction in unique job postings in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South and West Yorkshire has been in the IT sector (–9%), the lowest reduction in unique job postings has been seen in the cleaning and facilities management (6.1%)

Wales

Job postings in Wales have dropped by 7% in June compared to May.
Tourism, leisure & arts-related job postings had the most significant drop, with a 8% decrease compared to the previous month. The decline is likely related to the high rate of seasonal job postings in the previous month.
Bucking the national trend, IT job postings have seen significant growth in parts of Wales: Carmarthenshire 4%, Denbighshire 31%, Gwynedd 18.5%, Rhondda Cynon Taf 17.2%, Vale of Glamorgan 10.8%.

Surrey, Sussex & Hampshire

Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire have seen a consistent decline in job postings in June, except for Brighton (4%) in East Sussex and Hayworth Heath (1.4%) in West Sussex.
Aligned to the national trend, the most significant decrease in the unique job postings has been seen in the IT sector (-10.8%). However, the training and education sector continues to see an increase in job postings (4.8%) following a 4% increase in the previous month.

We are currently providing free recruitment services to more than 500 UK businesses including Zizzi, Wincanton and Tesco. If you think your businesses could benefit, get in touch today.