Yahoo Finance Coronavirus: UK sees widespread fall in job vacancies
Job vacancies have plummeted in recent months because of the COVID-19 crisis, with some areas of the UK seeing a fall of 80%, a new study suggests.
Jobs site CV-Library said there was a 62% fall in job vacancies in the three months to June compared to the same quarter last year.
Cities worst affected by the drop in vacancies included Aberdeen (down 80%), Bristol (70%), Leeds (69%), Birmingham (68%) and Glasgow (down 67%), said the report.
Sectors which saw the biggest fall in job adverts included administration, design, sales, recruitment, catering, media, and marketing, the report indicated.
Research by search engine Adzuna.co.uk in April suggested the UK job market is one of the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, with UK job vacancies down 42% nosedive in the 8 weeks to 16 April.
The US, Russia, and New Zealand were also among the worst-affected.
Lee Biggins, chief executive of CV-Library, said: “It’s no secret that lockdown measures stunted the UK economy and labour market during this period.
“As a result, businesses had no choice but to put a pause on their hiring plans and make difficult decisions about their workforce.
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“These figures are pretty bleak and naturally, some industries and locations have been more affected by others, although the market is already showing signs of recovery this month, albeit very slowly.”
Average pay has also dropped in sectors hardest hit by the pandemic. It was down by almost a fifth in leisure and tourism, 9% in charities and 8% in catering, the report added.
The latest Morgan McKinley Spring London Employment Monitor, which details hiring trends across Britain's financial industry, similarly showed job vacancies fell by 60% in the three months to the end of June.
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