Scotland leading the way as job ads stage slow recovery

● Upbeat signs emerge in Recruitment and Employment Confederation study

Scotland and Wales are leading a slow recovery of the jobs market, but sectors including hospitality are continuing to be hit by the coronavirus crisis, a study today suggests.

The number of jobs on offer across the UK increased by 13,000 to 963,000 in the past four weeks, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) noted.

In the first week of June there were 112,000 job adverts, up by 64 per cent from the last week of May, suggesting more companies are starting to hire again.

Scotland and Wales are leading the recovery, the report noted, with job postings rising by 3.6 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively. Individual hiring hotspots for the first week of June included Dumfries & Galloway (+13.1 per cent), and East Lothian and Midlothian (+10.4 per cent).

The upbeat findings come against a backdrop of major job cuts involving companies as diverse as Johnson Matthey, Rolls-royce, Macdonald Hotels and Scottish Gas owner Centric.

Neil Carberry, chief executive of the REC, said: “We have been hearing from recruiters and business leaders all over the UK that the jobs market has been slowly improving over the past few weeks, and it’s good to see that backed up by this data.

“Scotland and Wales leading the way may reflect a more cautious approach from the devolved governments to closing construction and industrial sites at the height of the pandemic – with growth this week driven by sites reopening.

“As lockdown measures continue to be eased and the economy gradually opens up, matching jobseekers with opportunities quickly will be more important than ever – especially given the anticipated spike in unemployment.

“Recruiters across the UK are ready to help, working with all UK governments to support action to tackle the scourge of unemployment.”

Matthew Mee, a director at Emsi, which helped produce the Jobs Recovery Tracker report, said: “It’s encouraging to see there are certain regions across the UK that are now beginning to increase their recruitment marketing activity.

“Whilst this certainly isn’t a uniform or consistent trend as yet – we can see the recruitment sector itself is beginning to re-activate these efforts.

“There are also a number of other sectors where there are signs that recovery is igniting, with companies in transportation, construction, pharmaceuticals, engineering, technology and indeed some niche retailers who now appear to be actively recruiting.”

While Scotland and Wales were leading the recovery, with job postings on the rise, they fell in parts of Northern Ireland, South Norfolk and Kent, the report added.

The biggest increases in job adverts were for customer service reps, parking attendants and speech therapists.

Job adverts for chefs, waiters and waitresses, catering assistants and bar staff all fell significantly, said the REC.