Image: FlickrThe number of job vacancies surged in November, suggests new data, and yet salaries are not rising so fast – or maybe that is changing.
According to job site Adzuna there were 1.1 million job vacancies in November, up 1.3 per cent over the same month last year.
The Adzuna report said that competition for new jobs is at an all-time low, but the Adzuna report found that the average advertised salary has fallen by 2.7 per cent to £32,200.
It’s been a year of “unexpected events within the political climate,” said Doug Monro, co-founder of Adzuna but he said that despite this "the jobs market has fared well in the main this year.”
But he added that thanks to salary stagnation “it may be too early to brand the jobs market a complete success.”
He added: “The ongoing rise of the gig economy, improvements to the national minimum wage, the strength of well-performing regions such as Wales and sectors such as healthcare and nursing and charity and voluntary outperforming the traditionally strong industries have been particular highlights and show that the composition of the jobs market continues to evolve.”
Of course, according to economic theory, when vacancy rates rise, wages rise soon after.
The Adzuna report sort of chimes with findings of the Office of National Statistics, which recently recorded unemployment falling to 4.8 per cent, the lowest level since 2005.
And while the Adzuna report highlights a curious contrast between rising vacancies and falling wages, the ONS recently recorded a 2.6 per cent rise in average wages ex bonuses – one of the fastest rates of wage increases recorded this decade.
The Adzuna finding does not totally agree with the findings from the ONS, but at least the ONS data is consistent with what you would expect to happen when vacancy rates are so high.
The trend it appears is clear.
