Insights
UK Labour Market Insights | Mar 2022
Trends across the UK
The labour market continues to recover with a quarterly increase in the employment rate. However, economic inactivity has increased slightly at the same time.
The number of pay rolled employees showed another monthly increase, up 275,000 in February 2022 to a record 29.7 million.
While the employment rate is up on the previous quarter and up on the year, it is still below pre-pandemic rates.
The number of job vacancies from December 2021 to February 2022 hit a new record of 1,318,000. This is an increase of 105,000 from last quarter, with half of the industry sectors showing record highs.
London
- Vacancies in London have now risen to almost pre-Christmas levels, with a 62% year-on-year increase.
- The areas with the highest percentage increases in vacancies since last month are Merton (20%), Greenwich (14.6%), Waltham Forest (14.3%), and Barking and Dagenham (13%).
- Construction and labouring saw the biggest boost in vacancies posted, with a 22% increase, closely followed by agriculture, environmental and animal care, with a 20% rise.
- Following the trend, the sector with the largest number of vacancies posted is in health and social care (6,582) followed by education and training (4,332) and public services and admin (3,501).
Scotland: Tayside and Lanarkshire
- We are continuing to see a decrease in the number of vacancies posted in these areas. This is due to a decline in jobs being posted in the security, transport and warehouse sectors.
- The tourism, leisure and arts sector saw the biggest growth in vacancies of 24.3%, while the agriculture, environmental and animal care sector saw a 12.1% increase, and business, finance and legal sector vacancies rose by 7.3%.
- While many sectors had much smaller growth, or experienced a dip in jobs posted, the following still had the largest number of vacancies overall. Health and social care had the highest in the area at 2,897, followed by public services and administration, which had 1,868. Vacancies remained high in both science and engineering and retail sector.
North West
- The changing season is reflected in the 18% rise in vacancies in the tourism, leisure and arts sector – the highest increase across sectors. We are also seeing the largest vacancy increases in agriculture, environmental and animal care (17.9%), catering and hospitality (12.1%) and construction and labouring (8.5%).
- While Liverpool remains the city with the largest number of vacancies (33,685) in this region, there was a 12% dip this month
West Midlands
- Vacancies are on the rise across the region, with Birmingham seeing 68,247 jobs posted – a 4.8% month-on-month increase.
- Like other regions, the health and social care sector has the most vacancies (18,505), despite seeing a 5% drop since the previous month.
- Areas where we have seen significant growth are tourism, leisure and arts (24.4%), manufacturing and production (16.5%) and construction and labouring (15.7%).
Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire
- Vacancies are rising across these areas, particularly in parts of Derbyshire and Yorkshire.
- Leeds is the city with the highest number of vacancies this month at 53,944 and has seen a 5.3% month-on-month increase.
- There are plenty of opportunities in the health and social care sector, with 28,718 jobs currently posted. This is closely followed by business, finance and legal with 22,132 and public services and admin at 21,631.
- As expected with the seasonal change, the agriculture, environmental and animal care sector has experienced a growth spurt in roles of 18.1%. Other growing areas include tourism, leisure and arts (14.5%) and catering and hospitality (13.4%).
Wales
- Across Wales, we have seen increased opportunities in sectors affected by the Spring, including tourism, leisure and arts (27.8%), catering and hospitality (13.8%) and agriculture, environmental and animal care (13.3%).
- Sectors with the highest vacancies in Wales include heath and social care with 15,677 this month, public services and admin (8,007) and business, finance and legal with 5,600 vacancies posted.
Surrey, Sussex & Hampshire
- After a sharp decline in vacancies posted in the last few months of 2021, numbers have started to rise again. We are seeing large percentage increases month-on-month across many sectors, including catering and hospitality (29.4%), protective services (26%), manufacturing and production (24%) and agriculture, environmental and animal care (21.3%).
- Unsurprisingly, health and social care has the largest number of new vacancies at 8,257, followed by business, finance and legal (6,065) and public services and admin (5,500).
We provide free recruitment for more than 500 UK businesses including Costa Coffee, Wincanton and Tesco. If you think your business could benefit, get in touch today.
