Unleash the young so they can cash in on jobs boom

UK JOB vacancies have hit a record high of more than one million for the first time since records began, according to the Office for National Statistics.

- Tim Newark

At the same time, August payrolls leapt by 241,000 to 29.1 million people in work.

Staffing levels are back to pre-pandemic levels and the main worry is that there are not enough workers to fill the jobs our surging economy needs.

It’s not just delivery drivers either but employees at all levels of our supply network that are in demand.

At the top of the list, however, is the need for health and social care workers, with 167,000 vacancies in that sector alone. Next comes hospitality with 134,000 empty positions.

With students going back to college at the end of a summer of temporary work in hotels and restaurants, this saw the biggest leap of 57,600 available jobs in August.

It’s a golden opportunity for many people to try a different career path and go where the vacancies are. Retail needs 83,000 new recruits, while scientific and technical professions face a shortfall of 98,000.

Urgently, the 1.5 million people still on furlough need to get back to work otherwise our post-Covid recovery will falter.