In May to July 2023, the number of unemployed people per vacancy was at 1.4, up from 1.2 in February to April 2023. Only real estate activities are currently below pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) levels. The total number of vacancies remains 188,000 above January to March 2020 pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) levels, with human health and social work activities showing the largest increase of 45,000.
The industry with the largest fall was accommodation and food service activities, where the number of vacancies fell by 48,000. When comparing June to August 2023 with the same time last year, total vacancies fell by 268,000 (21.3%) with falls in 16 of the 18 industry sectors. The industry sector showing the largest fall in vacancy numbers was professional, scientific and technical activities, down by 13,000. June to August 2023 continued the sequence of quarterly falls that began in May to July 2022, with vacancies falling by 64,000 from the previous quarter. The largest growth was in mining and quarrying at 5.9%. The total number of vacancies fell by 6.0% from the previous quarter, with administrative and support service activities, and professional, scientific and technical activities contracting the most, falling by 15.7% and 12.1%, respectively.
Download this chart Figure 2: In June to August 2023 the number of vacancies fell in the majority of industry sectors Image
