According to new research, the new nationwide lockdown in England has reversed the recovery in job vacancies that was seen at the end of 2020.
New research by the jobsite Indeed shows that the job market has been adversely affected by the new national lockdown, with the restrictions halting the steady recovery that was made at the end of last year.
The data shows that the number of available jobs is now down by 36 per cent in comparison to the previous figures recorded at the start of 2021 which indicated a 35 per cent shortfall.
The last time that the figures stood so low for job vacancies was during the first national lockdown in April 2020.
Specific sectors have fared better than others. The number of jobs within sports such as sports coaches and fitness instructors has seen a significant reduction. Although initially recovering in the winter months, the most recent lockdown restrictions have caused the number of jobs in this sector to fall.
Other industries that have been similarly affected include beauty and wellness as well as the childcare sector.
Conversely, the strongest improvement seen in the last week was in dental sector jobs, as dentists remain open as an essential service under the current lockdown restrictions.
Jack Kennedy, UK Economist at global job site Indeed, comments:
The early signs are that the return of a national lockdown has delivered a setback to the jobs market’s gradual recovery. After plunging during the first lockdown last spring, the number of vacancies posted on Indeed had been improving steadily since the summer.
January’s apparent reversal of that trend could drag the jobs market into a double dip decline and make life harder for hundreds of thousands of jobseekers, as employers once again batten down the hatches.
The rapid roll-out of the Government’s vaccination programme is vital, both for public health and for the health of the economy – particularly its ability to create jobs.
Several healthcare professions such as dentistry, nursing and medicine are still showing robust hiring trends, but vacancies are becoming scarcer in other industries hit hard by successive lockdown restrictions.
*This information was taken from Indeed who analysed hundreds of thousands of job postings to find the decline in vacancies by job type, and identified the most affected sectors.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
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