Job vacancies fall – as employers hit with larger prices

Wage rises are slowing, and there are fewer jobs on provide as employers grapple with larger prices, official figures present.

Within the month when minimal wage rose and employers’ nationwide insurance coverage will increase kicked in, job vacancies fell in April, in keeping with information from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics.

Job vacancies have now fallen beneath the pre-pandemic degree of March 2020, down from a peak of 1.3 million in early 2022 to 761,000 final month.

Common weekly earnings continued to rise sooner than inflation, at 5.5% down from 5.7%, whereas pay excluding bonuses grew at a decrease 5.6% degree, down from 5.9%, within the three months to March, ONS figures confirmed.

Newest official figures confirmed inflation stood at 2.6% in March.

Unemployment additionally rose in March, the ONS mentioned, ticking up from 4.4% to 4.5% a month earlier.

The ONS, nevertheless, continued to advise warning in decoding modifications within the month-to-month unemployment price because of considerations over the figures’ reliability.

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