Recent figures show there are 1.2 millions jobs currently available in the UK. But that may well be surprising in a challenged economy, Anthony McCormack explains why that doesn’t tell the full story.

Many people would have raised their eyebrows when news came out this week that there were currently 1.2 million jobs available in the UK.

With so many jobs being lost in recent months, those figures hardly fit in with the narrative that jobs were on a sharp downward trajectory.

But while the number of jobs available is clearly a good sign and evidence that the economy is clawing its way back up the cliff it fell off in March and April, they don’t really tell the full story.

Those 1.2 million positions may well be jobs available but they are not jobs easily filled by those who are being made redundant because they do not have the required skills to fill them.

Hospitality

While the biggest hit to jobs has come in the hospitality and leisure industries, many of the new jobs have cropped up in the digital skills industry as remote working has increased drastically.

Construction and high-tech manufacturing has also seen a boost in available positions but these are not necessarily the sort of jobs that those being made redundant can get in the mix for.

The UK’s jobs recovery tracker graph

Certain geographical areas have been hit harder than others too with London, for example, taking a big hit.

And women are another part of society that have also been adversely affected disproportionately because Covid has hammered office and clerical jobs, ones that mainly women have tended to take on a part-time basis having been traditionally the ones to be relied upon for child care.

Lockdown

Young people have been hurt too with so many of them working in bars, pubs and clubs. The hospitality industry really is facing the brunt of the Government’s lockdown measures.

So, as you can see, trying to fit round pegs into square holes is not easy.

Retraining and re-skilling will be crucial over the coming years but some areas of employment may take a long time to recover. For example, if there is a shortage of doctors and architects, those jobs can take years to train for. There will be no short fix there.

Jobs support

Government job support must focus on viable jobs while transferable skills will be important in helping people who have been made redundant and who need to look at posts they wouldn’t normally consider to get back into paid employment.

Macstaff understand the market and are responsive to both clients and candidates needs so please get in touch if you would like to discuss your needs and your situation in these testing and ever-changing times.

The help we can give to candidates is obvious. But clients will also really find the benefit of a recruitment company at the moment. I read the other day that there were over 2,000 applications for a post in Coventry. Macstaff’s job would be to sift through those CVs and present the best three for your consideration.

Read more: Why job candidates should look outside of Europe in the post-Brexit landscape

Read more: See the latest news on the ‘jobs recovery tracker’.

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