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Last week Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey welcomed what
he described as "full employment" - with the official jobless
rate at 3.8% - despite the economy entering a shallow recession
in the second half of last year.
However, the central bank wants to see wage growth slow from
rates of more than 6% in order to put downward pressure on
inflation, which remains double its target.
Falling job vacancies offer a potential sign that employers are
finding it easier to recruit than in the immediate aftermath of
the COVID-19 pandemic, when the number of vacancies peaked at
more than 1.3 million.
Adzuna said 867,436 jobs were advertised in Britain in January,
based on its analysis of more than 1,000 online sources. This
was the lowest number since April 2021 and down from more than 1
million a year earlier.
"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," Adzuna co-founder Andrew
Hunter said.
The number of job seekers per advertised vacancy rose to 1.81
from 1.48 a year earlier.
However, Hunter said, preliminary data for February suggested
the number of vacancies was stabilising.
Previous vacancy data from the Office for National Statistics
showed an 18% annual fall in job vacancies for the three months
to the end of January.
Adzuna said the average starting salary - which employers only
published for just under half of positions advertised - was
38,168 pounds ($48,450), 3.0% more than a year earlier.
($1 = 0.7878 pounds)
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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