Statistics from ONS show that in the UK online job adverts have increased by 30 per cent compared to February 2020.
The data, collected by online job search engine Adzuna, state an 88.7% increase in online job adverts posted in the North West on 16th July 2021.
Unemployment rates from March to May this year are at 4.8%, which is 0.7% more than the same period in 2020.
Figures also highlight the differences in job advertisements between the various sectors.
The transport, logistics and warehouse sector saw the greatest increase in jobs posted online, up by 202.3%.
Healthcare and social care only saw a slight increase of 1.5% and graduate jobs advertised were down by 0.8%.
A Government spokesperson from the Department of Work and Pensions told MM: “Our Plan for Jobs is creating opportunities right across the country, and through training and support schemes like Kickstart, our Sector-based Work Academy Programme and JETS we are helping jobseekers build skills and experience to fill these vacancies – with recent figures showing a sustained increase in the number of workers on company payrolls and fall in the unemployment rate.”
Figures from DWP state that as of 7th July, 44,000 young people had successfully started Kickstart jobs, and over 5,000 of these were based in the North West, making it the second highest regional uptake across the country.
Some have expressed concern over unemployment rising once the government’s Job Retention Scheme closes in September.
“Unless [the employment] gap is closed before the furlough scheme ends in September, we are likely to see a worrying rise in unemployment later this year,” Nye Cominetti, of the Resolution Foundation think-tank, told The Financial Times.
By 14th June 2021, 11.6 million employee jobs had been furloughed
through the Government’s job retention scheme, at a cost of £65.9 billion, according to statistics from the House of Commons Library.
The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasted a peak level of unemployment of 6.5% at the end of 2021.
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