The latest figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) have revealed that employers are reporting that shortages of skilled staff are on the rise. Many are still struggling to find staff to fill in-demand roles.
The REC state that there were 1.7 million jobs open at the beginning of last month, the second-highest weekly number of vacancies since December 2020.
August also saw 204,000 new job listings – the fourth highest number recorded since the pandemic started.
Some of the areas with the most shortages include postal workers, painters and photographers.
The deputy chief executive of the REC, Kate Shoesmith, said: ‘Since the final COVID restrictions were lifted in July, the number of new job adverts have continued to ramp up. Employers are desperate to find good staff to help them recover and grow in the coming months.’
A spokesperson for The Workers Union said: ‘While it’s great that the UK is becoming a land of opportunity again, we must guard against complacency. Only last week, we published an article that highlighted the effect that staff shortages are having on the country’s recovery plans.
‘Working people have been through a lot in the last 18 months. Some of them have lost their jobs, while many others are either restarting their careers or looking for that first rung on the ladder. They need confidence, skills and training to underwrite their transition back to employment.’
The Workers Union on Staff Shortages
12 months ago, all the talk was about the cliff-edge that many people faced as the government put plans in place to wind down furlough.
It is with some satisfaction, then, that our country can point to its burgeoning status as one of world’s job factories. The genius of the British people, after all, is in our resilience and ability to stick together during tough and testing times. We’ve shown that we can roar out of the long dark tunnel of the pandemic and into recovery. However, as a nation we cannot afford to light our metaphorical cigars and assume the job is done.
We must tackle the shortage of skilled staff with a national programme of training that takes the brakes off recovery and offers those most affected by the pandemic fresh hope. We must provide better, more up to the minute information on the list of available jobs.
The Workers Union’s new jobs board is a growing contribution to addressing this problem. With a few mouse clicks, job seekers can search jobs by sector or location in seconds. Workers can easily browse the job descriptions thanks to useful summary snippets and applications are made simple via the enquire now buttons.
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