The number of temporary employees in the UK increased by 9.32% on a seasonally adjusted basis to a total of approximately 1.68 million for the three-month period from September 2021 through November 2021 when compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Office for National Statistics.

When compared to the previous three-month period ended October 2021, the number of temporary employees remained flat.

Temporary workers are self-identified when surveyed by the ONS, and they include those who are on fixed-period contracts, temporary agency workers, casual workers, seasonal workers and others in temporary work.

The number of temporary employees as a percentage of total employment was 5.98%, up from 5.54% when compared to a year ago.

Of the 1.68 million temporary employees during the period ended November 2021, approximately 455,047 were temporary because they could not find a permanent job; 440,162 did not want a permanent job; 154,907 had a contract with a period of training; and 632,002 cited other reasons.

Of the 1.68 million temporary employees during the period, approximately 725,146 were men while 956,972 were women.

Meanwhile, ONS data also showed the UK employment rate was estimated at 75.5%, 1.1% lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic (December 2019 to February 2020), but 0.2% higher than the previous three-month period (June to August 2021).

For the three months ending November 2021, the highest employment rate estimate in the UK was in the East of England (79.4%), a joint record high employment rate for the region, not seen since January to March 2019, while the lowest employment rate was in Northern Ireland (70.0%).  

The UK unemployment rate was estimated at 4.1%, 0.1% higher than before the pandemic, but 0.4% lower than the previous three-month period. The highest unemployment rate estimate in the UK was in the North East (5.7%) and the lowest was in the East of England (2.7%), a record low unemployment rate and level for the region.

The UK economic inactivity rate was estimated at 21.3%, 1.0% higher than before the pandemic, and 0.2% higher than the previous three-month period. For the three months ending November 2021, the highest economic inactivity rate estimate in the UK was in Northern Ireland (27.6%) and the lowest was in the East of England (18.2%).

The number of job vacancies in October to December 2021 rose to a new record of 1,247,000, an increase of 462,000 from its pre-Covid-19 January to March 2020 level, with most industries displaying record numbers of vacancies. However, the rate of growth in vacancies continued to slow down. The ratio of vacancies to every 100 employee jobs reached a record high 4.1 in October to December 2021.

Growth in average total pay (including bonuses) was 4.2% and growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) was 3.8% among employees in September to November 2021. In real terms (adjusted for inflation), total and regular pay have shown minimal growth in September to November 2021, at 0.4% for total pay and 0.0% for regular pay.

Single-month growth in real average weekly earnings for November 2021 fell on the year for the first time since July 2020, at negative 0.9% for total pay and negative 1.0% for regular pay.

“Salaries are growing reasonably strongly, but some people are saying they are not feeling much better due to rising prices," the ONS told The BBC.

The latest estimate of payrolled employees indicates that in December 2021 there were 29.5 million employees in the UK: up 184,000 on the revised November 2021 level and up 409,000 on the pre-Covid-19 February 2020 level. All regions are now above pre-coronavirus levels, with Scotland having the largest percentage increase on the month.

The redundancy rate decreased to a record low following the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. In September to November 2021, reports of redundancies in the three months prior to ONS labour market interviews decreased by 0.8 per thousand compared with the previous three-month period to a record low of 2.8 per thousand employees. Since Dec-Feb 2020 this fell by 1.1 people per thousand employees.

ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said, “The number of employees on payrolls continued to grow strongly in December, with the total now well above pre-pandemic levels.

“New survey figures show that in the three months to November, the unemployment rate fell back almost to where it was before Covid-19 hit, and those reporting they’d recently been made redundant fell to their lowest since records began more than a quarter of a century ago,” Morgan continued.

“However, while job vacancies reached a new high in the last quarter of 2021, they are now growing more slowly than they were last summer,” Morgan said. “Following recent rises in inflation, in November real wages fell on the year for the first time since July 2020.”

Total actual weekly hours worked decreased by 2.6 million hours compared with the previous three-month period, to 1.02 billion hours in September to November 2021. It is still 33.5 million below pre-Covid-19 levels.

Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, said, “The strength of the UK jobs market remains remarkable by any historic comparison, as vacancies rise and unemployment drops. It’s clear that temporary and part-time work is playing a key role as people find new roles in different sectors as the economy changes rapidly. More short-term and part-time roles may also reflect greater flexibility from firms as they struggle to hire in this market.”

 “The big issue now is capacity constraint, there are hundreds of thousands fewer workers in the labour market than before the pandemic,” Carberry continued. “Over time, that will affect the economy’s ability to drive prosperity. Firms need to be looking at new approaches to developing their workforce, while government needs to work with businesses on the skills and job matching support necessary to address rising economic inactivity. Staff shortages will outlive the pandemic as an economic issue - recruiters are well placed to support businesses in this market with the latest insight and advice.”

Tania Bowers, Global Public Policy Director at the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), said, “The drop in unemployment levels is, on paper, a positive for the UK’s labour force. However, in the context of continued monthly increases in vacancies and pay-rolled employee numbers, this does raise further concerns of skills shortages across the country. It is promising to note from the data that the redundancy rate fell to a record low once the job retention scheme came to an end, which indicates that this was successful.”

“Looking ahead, the dearth of talent in the UK is a concern that we’re expecting will remain top of the agenda for businesses,” Bowers said. “The country’s economy has recovered well so far since the pandemic, but this continued growth does hinge on the availability of a highly skilled workforce. We are still seeing the impact of Brexit play out, with sectors such as healthcare that have historically relied on international resources reporting significant skills gaps. What we need is a global talent attraction approach, but at the moment, the UK labour market isn’t as appealing as it needs to be to non-UK professionals. This is particularly prevalent for the highly skilled independent contractor audience who still have no viable and attractive visa route into the country.”

Paul Farrer, founder and chairman of recruitment firm Aspire, said, “With employment rising, unemployment falling and fewer firms making redundancies, employers are slowly starting to recruit the skills they need to stimulate growth this year. However, we are not out of the woods, not by any stretch of the imagination. The labour market remains fiercely competitive, with employers fighting hard to recruit the talent they need to kick on in 2022.”

“With regards to wages dropping, in our experience, this certainly isn’t the case. From creative sectors to sales, events and technology, we are witnessing historic wage growth as businesses offer higher salaries to win the war for talent,” Farrer said.

“As the market returns to pre-pandemic levels, job vacancy growth will naturally slow, which is ultimately a good thing for employers. That said, the high rate of staff turnover, as candidates gain confidence from the economic recovery, will likely keep vacancy numbers high for some time. With this in mind, employers would be wise to consider not only how they recruit candidates, but also ways they can retain the skills they depend on,” Farrer said.