Businesses have continued to increase hiring, putting further pressure on the Bank of England’s efforts to cool the jobs market.
The number of new job postings in March rose to 848,004, up by 4.2 per cent from the previous month, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s labour market tracker.
The increase in vacancies took the overall volume of active job openings to more than 1.9 million, a 1.1 per cent increase from February. The rise is being driven mainly by a steady increase in new jobs rather than in older vacancies staying open.
While active job adverts have risen over recent months, they remain lower than in the same period last year, when demand for workers was higher amid a tight labour market.
There was significant demand in several sectors in March. Vacancies seeking airline staff rose by 26.2 per cent from February, while in mining and quarrying there was a 22.7 per cent increase in active job postings from the previous month.
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Britain’s labour market has held up well over the past 12 months, with unemployment falling to historic lows. This, alongside an increase in economic inactivity owing to long-term sickness, has narrowed the pool of available staff.
Neil Carberry, the chief executive of the REC, said the rise in new job postings meant that “we are starting to see some signs of firms gearing up for growth”. He noted that labour market activity remained well below last year, but added that “further declines in labour market activity now seem less likely, especially as inflation and pay awards are normalising”.
Stagnating economic growth and interest rates being held at a 16-year high are not deterring businesses from taking on new workers, the figures from the REC suggest.
After several months of slow growth in vacancies, Scotland reported the highest rise in job postings of all UK regions.
