The number of new job postings in the UK for the week of 6-12 March were 1.5% higher compared to the week before (27 Feb-5 Mar) with 205,947 new job postings, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and Lightcast’s latest Labour Market Tracker.

The tracker showed a 5% increase in the number of active postings in the week of 6-12 March compared to the previous week, with 1,447,095 active job adverts. The figure has remained stable around and above 1.4 million since January 2022, reflecting the high demand from employers.

Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC, said, “This new job ads data shows stability in employer demand for staff. The labour market is not surging, as it did for much of 2022, but it remains a good time to be looking for a job. Firms still need to hire and there are plenty of opportunities out there.”

 Carberry continued, “There is nothing in this data that suggests that labour and skills shortages are going away soon, so companies need to adapt their hiring plans to match that. A focus on reaching into different communities, skill development and staff engagement is likely to pay off. Across the country, the best firms are working with their recruiters on this.”

Meanwhile, occupations with notable increases in job adverts in the week of 6-12 March 2023 include clergy (+17.6%), plasterers (+13.6%), financial and accounting technicians (+12.9%), archivists and curators (+12.6%), secondary education teaching professionals (+12.6%), production managers and directors in construction (+11.7%), and scaffolders, stagers and riggers (+11.5%).

On the other hand, postal workers, mail sorters, messengers and couriers (-12.3%), roundspersons and van salespersons (-6.2%), precision instrument makers and repairer (-0.2%), telecommunications engineers (+0.1%), and dental nurses (+0.4%) saw the biggest weekly decline or slowest growth in job adverts.

By region, Gwynedd (+13%), Lambeth (+12.8%), Berkshire (+11%), Highland (+11%), and Belfast (+10.5%) saw notable increases in job adverts. At the other end of the scale, North Lanarkshire (-8.8%) saw the largest decline in job adverts, followed by Torbay (-2.7%), Isle of Wight (-1.7%), Northumberland (-1.5%), and Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire (-1.4%).

Elena Magrini, Head of Global Research, Lightcast, said, “The number of new online postings has stabilised in recent weeks. Compared to the fast growth seen in 2021 and the first half of 2022, the line is flattening. This shows that recruitment activity is no longer growing, which could be an early indication of the labour market cooling. However, the fact that the market is cooling and not declining in times of such uncertainty and high inflation suggests that the current economic outlook has not yet impacted negatively recruitment activity.”