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Hunting for a job has never been an easy task, but if you live in the UK, it's becoming increasingly
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difficult to land yourself a gig. Competition among job seekers hit its most intense level in three
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years last month, according to Job Search Engine Adzuna. In fact, the job hunting platform
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reported that there were half as many jobs as there were people looking for work last month
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after another fall in vacancies and a slight uptick in redundancies. This was the highest number
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of job seekers per vacancy since May 2021. Vacancies fell 0.5% month on month in August to
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858,000. That's down over 17% compared to the same month last year. On the supply side
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the figure showed that 154,000 claimants entered the jobs market between June and August
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The figures showed that job seekers face the least competition in the south of England and
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London, whereas job hunters in Northern Ireland faced the most competition. Tony Wilson
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Director at the Institute for Employment Studies, said the figures suggest that vacancies are levelling
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off at around 850,000. Competition for jobs is also returning to more normal levels, he said
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He argued that the Bank of England should have more confidence to lower interest rates following the figures
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The bank is concerned that a tight labour market might help fuel inflationary pressures
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particularly in the labour-intensive services sector. But official figures suggest that annual wage growth, including bonuses, slow to full
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percent, its slowest pace of growth since November 2020, and down from peaks of over 8% last summer
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Here at City AM, we'd like to know. Have you been on the hunt for a job in the past year
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What has your experience been like? Let us know in the comments
