Since November it has been estimated that the labour market has shown a continuing recovery, with an increase in employment rates and a decrease in unemployment. However, even though we have seen an increase in employment and the number of hours worked by workers it is still below pre-pandemic/coronavirus levels.  

From the latest government job market release on 15th March, we can see that employment rates for those aged 16 to 24 have continued to decrease and have been one of the age groups hit the hardest by the pandemic. However, there has been a significant improvement in employment overall.  

The 16 and over category experienced an unemployment rate of 3.9% from November 2021 to January 2022 with a three month change of – 0.2 pp and an employment rate of 75.6% – 0.1 pp over the same period. 

Job vacancies have continued to rise to a new record of 1,318,000 in the period from December 2021 to February 2022 and from November 2021 to January 2022 growth in total pay was 0.1% and regular pay fell over the year to negative 1.0%. Regular pay has been kept positive due to bonuses.  

We are expecting regular pay to increase significantly in line with national minimum wage and have witnessed competitive salaries being offered to attract the top talent.