New job ads fall 8.3% since last month

The number of new jobs on offer dropped by 8.3% since last month, as employers feel the impact of rising costs and are concerned about the state of the economy, according to a new report.

There were 143,000 new job ads posted last week, the lowest figure for 2022 and a reduction from the 160,000 that were posted a week ago.

Between 19 and 25 September there were 1.45 million jobs adverts available for UK workers, lower than at any point during the epidemic, according to data from recruitment industry representative the Recruitment Employment Confederation and labour market analytics firm Lightcast.

The report said that the biggest week-on-week decline was for driving instructors, ship and hovercraft officers and floorers and wall tilers.

There were increases in postings for teachers, school secretaries and school crossing patrol staff.

Danni Hewson, a financial analyst at online investment platforms AJ Bell, said: "The bounce back from lock-ins created a boom in the labour market, but lack of confidence and recession fears are slowly eating away at those numbers." The tapering off does suggest that the boom is over, and there are still high numbers of vacancies.