UK Labour Market Insights | November 2022

Trends across the UK

For the first time in months, unique job postings increased by +1% compared to the previous month. England and Wales both saw increases (+1.9% and +3.3% respectively), however Scotland’s unique job postings decreased by –8.6% compared to September.
In our previous report, we explained how Yorkshire and The Humber was the only region to see an increase in job postings. However, October saw the trend reverse, with this region seeing a decrease in contrast to the rest of England.
Based on ONS data, employment remains around one percentage point lower than pre-pandemic levels, while those not looking or not available for work is one percentage point higher.
Experts advise that in the current job market employers should broaden and simplify recruitment, increase work flexibility, and improve access to workplace training and support.

London

Across the 33 boroughs in the capital, unique job postings fell by –1% compared to September. However, this is not to say each individual area saw a decrease in October.
For instance, Waltham Forest saw an +11.1% increase in job postings compared to the previous month. This was largely driven by two sectors: Education & Training (+14.3%) and Health & Social Care (+7.9%).
However, as the overall decrease across London suggests, some boroughs saw a decline in unique job postings compared to the previous month.
Richmond upon Thames had the biggest decrease of job postings (-5.6%) compared to September. The largest decrease in postings were in Business, Finance & Legal and Catering & Hospitality.

Scotland: Tayside and Lanarkshire

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Scotland saw a decrease in unique job postings by –8.3% compared to September. This decrease could be seen across all sectors, apart from Retail, which saw a +0.5.% increase compared to the previous month.
The decrease in unique job postings happened predominantly in Lanarkshire; the decrease was –14.4% compared to the previous month.
While the majority of sectors in Lanarkshire saw a decrease in postings, some saw growth. For instance, Retail increased by +7.7% and Education and Training related roles went up by +23.9%.
Other sectors also saw increases compared to September. There was a significant increase in Protective Services roles in Dundee City (+41.2%).

North West England: Cumbria, Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside

Across the North West, unique job postings increased by +2.9% compared to the previous month. This was slightly higher than the average increase in England (+1.9%).
All five counties in the North West saw an increase in job postings, with the exception of Cheshire. In this region, job postings decreased by –3.7% compared to September.
Within Cheshire, Warrington had the largest decrease of unique job postings compared to the previous month. The sector in Warrington which saw the biggest decrease was Transport, Logistics & Supply Chain (-27.9%).
Moving on to look at the growth of job postings across this region. In Preston – which has over a quarter of the job postings in Lancashire – there was a large increase in Business, Finance & Legal related roles compared to the previous month (+41.7%)
Regions across the North West saw a growth within the IT sector compared to the previous month. These include Copeland (+52.5%) and Merseyside (+51.3%).

West Midlands

Unique job postings across the West Midlands increased by +3.2% compared to the previous month. Again, this was slightly higher than the overall average increase in England of +1.9%.
Within the West Midlands, Malvern Hills saw the biggest increase in unique job postings (+28.7%) compared to the previous month.
We saw growth in the IT sector within the West Midlands; across the whole of the region, IT related roles increased by +12.7% compared to the previous month.
In Birmingham which accounts for 45% of job postings, there was a +21% increase in IT related roles compared to the previous month.
Other sectors in the West Midlands which saw an increase in unique job postings compared to September were Education & Training (+11.8%) and Health & Social Care (+6%).

Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire

Unique job postings across these regions saw an overall decrease of -2.5% compared to September.
The sectors which saw the largest decrease in unique job postings compared to the previous month were Cleaning & Facilities Management (-15.3%), Construction & Labouring (-10.6%) and Manufacturing & Production (-8.9%).
However, despite the general downward trend, some sectors did see growth during October. Across the regions, Education & Training unique job postings increased by +8.6% compared to the previous month.
South Yorkshire saw unique job postings increase compared to the previous month (+2.8%)
This was driven by Sheffield, which has 56% of job postings for the county. The biggest increases were in Sales & Marketing (+25%), IT (+22.7%) and Education & Training (+18.4%) compared to the previous month.

Wales

Unique job postings in Wales increased by +3.3% compared to September. This was helped by Cardiff – which has 31% of the job postings in the country – significantly increasing by +19.5% compared to September.
This increase was largely driven by the IT sector, where the number of unique job postings increased by +30.6% compared to the previous month.
Regions which saw an increase in IT job postings, compared to September, included Rhondda Cynon Taf (+56.6%), Neath Port Talbot (+28.2%) and Newport (+11.9%).
Another sector which saw growth was Health and Social Care. We could see this growth in Merthyr Tydfil (+10.3%), Monmouthshire (+8.4%) and Neath Port Talbot (+10.7%) compared to September.

Surrey, Sussex & Hampshire

In the south of England, unique job postings increased by +7.6% compared to the previous month.
Littlehampton saw a large increase in job postings compared to the previous month (+34.7%). Health & Social Care related roles almost doubled compared to September, with 213 unique job postings in October.
Other regions also saw an increase in Health & Social Care related roles including Worthing (+33.4%) and Brighton (+18.9%).
Despite most regions showing an increase in job postings, a few experienced a decrease during October. For instance, Aldershot saw unique job postings fall by –2.7% compared to the previous month. In Aldershot, Sales & Marketing related roles saw the largest decrease (-33.3%) compared to September.

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