Middle classes hit hardest by jobs slump

THE middle classes are the biggest victims of the jobs downturn as Britain struggles to get out of recession, Telegraph analysis of Indeed data shows.

The number of middle income job openings has fallen faster than high income roles, while vacancies in low earning professions remain above precovid levels.

There are 13pc fewer middle income jobs on offer today compared with February 2020, Indeed figures show.

Indeed used data on about 50 typical occupations across the economy to divide up industries into high, medium and low earning sectors, based on the median salary.

Middle earning sectors include occupations such as human resources, IT and insurance. There are far fewer jobs available in these industries than before Covid.

The downturn for middle earning roles is much sharper than for highly paid jobs, which have suffered just a 5pc slump in openings over the same period.

There has also been a boom in low paid work, with job postings still 1pc above pre-pandemic levels even as Britain has fallen into recession.

Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed, said the downturn in middle income roles reflected the fact that many of these jobs were in sectors vulnerable to high interest rates and recessionary forces.

These include construction, property and human resources, which can face cuts as workforces shrink because of lay-offs.

The sharp fall in available roles is already feeding through to slower wage growth for the middle classes, according to Mr Kennedy.

“We are seeing in our wage tracker data these patterns being reflected in annual wage growth,” he said. “We are seeing much softer wage growth in a number of professional categories.”

Software developers, medical technicians and designers faced real-terms pay cuts as inflation cancelled out wage rises.

The average pay offered to software developers by hiring companies has only increased by 0.8pc over the 12 months to January, for example.

While middle and high income earners are facing a squeeze, wages in typically lower paid professions such as childcare, sanitation and retail rose rapidly in the year to January.

Pay in these occupations increased by 10pc, 8.4pc and 8.1pc respectively.