Employment opportunities in the UK decreased by 15% in January compared to the same month last year according to data released by employment data company, Adunza.
According to Reuters, the report revealed that British companies posted the fewest job advertisements in over three years last month, with a 15% decrease from the same month a year earlier. These results add to indications that the labour market is cooling.
Although the economy entered a slight recession in the second part of last year, Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey this week welcomed what he called “full employment” – with the official unemployment rate at 3.8%.
To keep inflation under control, which is still double its objective, the central bank would prefer to see wage growth fall from rates of more than 6%.
A decline in job openings might indicate that hiring is going more smoothly for companies than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic’s peak period, when there were more than 1.3 million openings.
Based on a study of over 1,000 web sources, Adzuna reported that 867,436 jobs were posted in Britain in January. This was down from over a million a year earlier and the lowest since April 2021.
“January 2024 has proven to be one of the most difficult starts to the year for job hunters in recent years with companies continuing to put hiring plans on ice,” the co-founder of Adzuna, Andrew Hunter, said.
The number of job searchers per listed opening increased to 1.81 from 1.48 a year ago.
Preliminary statistics for February, according to Hunter, however, indicated that the number of openings was stabilizing.
An 18% yearly decline in job openings was observed for the three months leading up to the end of January, according to earlier Office for National Statistics statistics.
Also, according to Adzuna, the average beginning wage was 38,168 pounds ($48,450), 3.0% higher than a year before. However, companies only disclosed starting salaries for slightly less than half of the positions they advertised.
