Job vacancies in free fall following year of high profile collapses

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed that there has been a sharp decline in the number of available jobs. This has primarily been driven by the high-profile collapses within the retail and tourism sectors this year.

ONS information has shown that the number of people in the UK in work has had its biggest fall in the last four years, as well as the number of vacancies falling.

UK employment fell by 58,000 to 32.75 million people in the three months to September. While the fall in employment was smaller than the 102,000 forecast, the decline over the quarter was the sharpest since May 2015, when it dropped by 65,000.

British institutions like Thomas Cook, Mothercare, Debenhams, Links of London and Bonmarche have all fallen into administration – while Arcadia and House of Fraser have faced continuing financial concerns. Many other smaller retailers have also fallen into administration.

Despite falling employment, unemployment over the period also dipped by 23,000 to 1.31 million.

The decline in both has been driven by an increase in the number of people judged economically inactive. There was also a further slump in UK job vacancies, with the number of positions advertised falling by 18,000 to 800,000.

An ONS spokesman said: “The employment rate is higher than a year ago, though broadly unchanged in recent months. Vacancies have seen their biggest annual fall since late 2009, but remain high by historical standards. The number of EU nationals in work was very little changed on the year, with almost all the growth in overseas workers coming from non-EU nationals.”