Vacancies

Vacancy rates rose sharply in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a combination of EU27 citizens returning home, changes to UK immigration policy and people's wider reactions to their relationship with work changed after the distortions of the pandemic. Overall, vacancy rates have been returning to their pre-pandemic levels suggesting that the labour market is at least starting to loosen, even though it remains tight compared to historic levels. However, there after still some sectors where vacancy levels remain elevated.

Sectors such as construction, manufacturing, health and social care and the wider public sector continue to experience difficulties in filling posts, but there are different reasons. Construction and manufacturing have long suffered skills challenges through both poor public perception of those sectors (even though they pay above the national average), whereas more public-sector driven areas like health and social care are heavily reliant on lower-paid workers and immigrants. Though the minimum wage has risen sharply over the past decade, these sectors, along with consumer-facing services such as arts, entertainment and recreation and hotels and restaurants all relied heavily on overseas labour to fill the demand, and this availability has reduced sharply post-Covid.

About this data

This data comes from the Office for National Statistics Labour Market Statistics (LMS) dataset, accessed through the Economic Data Dashboard (EDD).

Dataset: Labour Market Statistics

Last update: 2024-06-11

Next update: 2024-07-18

Note: Vacancy data is only available at a UK-level.

By sector

Percentage change on previous year by sector

This chart shows the scale of the fall in vacanices over the past two years as the labour market reverts more closely to its pre-pandemic norm. Overall, only a small part of the fall in vacancies is due to weaker economic demand, and this has been focused in consumer-facing sectors such as retail and hotels and restaurants where sharp inflation has softened consumer spending power. There is also some evidence of demand-side weakness in sectors such as financial and professional services where consulting and deal-making has eased back after a pandemic-related flurry.