Coronavirus: UK job vacancies contract for first time in more than a decade
UK job vacancies contracted for the first time in more than a decade last month as the coronavirus outbreak caused demand for staff to plummet.
A survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG said the vacancy measure dipped below 50 for the first time since September 2009, falling to 47.8 in March.
The fall in the index — which is monitored by the Bank of England — from 56 in February was the biggest monthly decline since the series began in October 1997.
Both permanent and temporary recruitment fell during March. Permanent job placements fell at the fastest rate since February 2009, with London the hardest hit.
Permenant job placements in the capital plunged to 20.3 in March from 47.5 in February.
Meanwhile, temporary staff billings fell at the fastest rate since March 2009, despite a surge in demand for supermarket staff and healthcare professionals due to the pandemic.
James Stewart, vice chair at KPMG, said: “Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 has already impacted the UK jobs market with recruitment activity falling away as uncertainty grips the nation.
“Firms are cancelling or postponing hiring decisions although, as you would expect, the demand for temporary healthcare professionals and manual labour workers saw a significant uptick.
“UK business needs to do what it can to adapt and survive this pandemic – and be able to emerge in the best position possible to ramp up once the crisis comes to an end.”
“The coronavirus pandemic has put the labour market on pause,” added Neil Carberry, chief executive of the REC.