Low-income workers have borne the brunt of a collapse in job vacancies in the UK caused by the lockdown of the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest official snapshot of the economy.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of vacancies on offer had more than halved since severe restrictions were imposed in March, with even bigger drops in the retail and hospitality sectors.
Official monthly figures for vacancies are only available up until April, but the ONS said that by using data from the online job search engine Adzuna it was able to add the current state of employment opportunities to its list of Covid-19 tracking indicators.
Adzuna said its breakdown of the vacancy data showed job vacancies in hospitality and catering had decreased by 86% since the start of the crisis, with retail down by 70%.
While the gradual reopening of construction sites and non-essential shops had led to some industries stabilising, Adzuna said recovery was likely to be slow as employers re-entered the market cautiously. Job losses in key sectors such as hospitality had disproportionately affected lower-income workers, with 64% of job losses coming from those earning between £15,000 and £24,299.
Andrew Hunter, a co-founder of Adzuna, said: “The UK has suffered huge job losses as it battles to stop the spread of coronavirus. The direct impact Covid-19 has had on sectors such as hospitality and retail has been catastrophic and is likely to take some time to recover.
“Im given some solace by the fact that in the last two to three weeks, the analysis suggests hiring looks to be turning a corner and returning to growth, albeit from a low base.”
The ONS release showed that 24% of shuttered businesses expected to start trading again in the next four weeks, compared with 31% which expect to start trading later than that. The rest were unsure when they would open again.
The ONS said job vacancies had started to fall at the start of March: “This decline continued for two months, with total job adverts levelling off from the start of May to around 43% of its 2019 average.”
A regional breakdown of the Adzuna data by the Institute of Employment Studies showed that London – with its high proportion of hospitality jobs – had the biggest drop in job vacancies (64%), but that the West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside, and Scotland had all had falls of more than 60%.