UK job vacancies fall for the ninth time in a row as unemployment rate rises - ONS reports

The amount of job vacancies in the UK has fallen for the ninth time in a row, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Job vacancies in the UK have fallen again, with companies blaming economic pressures stopping them from hiring. From January to the end of March 2023, the number of  job vacancies in the UK fell by 47,000 from the previous quarter to 1,105,000, official figures show.

Despite the drop, the ONS have said vacancy numbers remained at "very high levels". They said companies blamed economic pressures for holding back on hiring new staff. The latest earnings figures also showed that pay continued to fall behind rising prices.

Annual growth in regular pay, which excludes bonuses, was 6.6% between December and February. However, when taking into account the rate of 40-year high price increases, regular pay fell by 2.3%, the ONS said.

The world’s biggest trial of a four-day working week has been hailed a “major breakthrough” (Photo: Adobe)

ONS figures also show the unemployment rate rose to 3.8% in the three months to February, up from 3.7% in the previous three months. Additionally, figures also showed that 348,000 working days were lost to strike action in February, up from 210,000 in January, with the majority of strikes in the education sector.