We regularly update this report to track the pandemic’s effects on the labour market. 

Job postings on Indeed UK continued to rise in the run-up to England’s full reopening on 19 July. Job postings — a real-time measure of labour market activity — were 14.8% above the 1 February 2020, pre-pandemic baseline, seasonally adjusted, as of 16 July 2021. That was a 3.6 percentage point (ppt) gain from a fortnight ago. Improvements in the job posting trend have been recorded for fourteen successive weeks amid the easing of lockdown restrictions. 

A line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed UK”
A line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed UK” showing the percentage change in job postings on Indeed UK since 01 Feb 2020, seasonally adjusted, to 16 Jul 2021. There was a 14.8% change in UK job postings on Indeed from 01 Feb 2020 to 16 Jul 2021.

Sports postings rise 

The biggest improvement over the past fortnight was seen in the sports category, followed by veterinary, physicians & surgeons, nursing, pharmacy and retail. 

Insurance saw the sharpest deterioration, followed by civil engineering and electrical engineering.  

Table titled “Sports job postings rise.”
Table titled “Sports job postings rise.” Indeed compared the percent change in UK job postings, between 01 February, 2020, and 16 Jul 2021 across various sectors divided into sections “strongest performers,” and “weakest performers.” The strongest performers were sports, veterinary and physicians & surgeons, while the weakest performers were insurance, civil engineering and electrical engineering.

All regions of UK above pre-pandemic levels

Job postings have now surpassed the pre-pandemic baseline in all regions of the UK. The North East is furthest above that level, followed by Wales. Northern Ireland and London have the weakest recoveries.   

Bar graph titled “Job postings on Indeed UK.”
Bar graph titled “Job postings on Indeed UK.” This bar graph shows the percentage change in job postings on Indeed UK since 01 Feb 2020, seasonally adjusted, to 16 Jul 2021. The North East saw a 41% change, the largest, while Northern Ireland saw the lowest % change at 1%.

Barnsley leads job postings recovery

By cities and large towns, the job posting recovery has been strongest in Barnsley, followed by Middlesbrough, Peterborough and Hull. Aberdeen, Crawley, Aldershot and Slough are furthest below pre-pandemic levels. 

As we discussed in a previous post, posting recovery has been fastest in cities with higher shares of manufacturing, distribution, healthcare and education jobs, while areas reliant on hospitality, tourism and highly paid, white-collar, work-from-home jobs trail. Some cities such as Aberdeen (oil and gas) and Crawley (aviation) are highly exposed to specific sectors which have been hard-hit in the pandemic. 

Table titled “Barnsley leads job postings recovery.”
Table titled “Barnsley leads job postings recovery.” This table shows the percentage change in job postings on Indeed UK since 01 Feb 2020, seasonally adjusted, to 16 Jul 2021. Barnsley saw a 57% change, the largest, while Aberdeen saw the lowest % change at -30%.

We host the underlying job-postings chart data on Github as downloadable CSV files. Typically, it will be updated with the latest data one day after this blog post was published.

Methodology

All figures in this blog post are the percentage change in seasonally-adjusted job postings since 1 February, 2020, using a seven-day trailing average. 1 February, 2020, is our pre-pandemic baseline. We seasonally adjust each series based on historical patterns in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Each series, including the national trend, occupational sectors, and sub-national geographies, is seasonally adjusted separately. We adopted this new methodology in January 2021. 

The number of job postings on Indeed.com, whether related to paid or unpaid job solicitations, is not indicative of potential revenue or earnings of Indeed, which comprises a significant percentage of the HR Technology segment of its parent company, Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Job posting numbers are provided for information purposes only and should not be viewed as an indicator of performance of Indeed or Recruit. Please refer to the Recruit Holdings investor relations website and regulatory filings in Japan for more detailed information on revenue generation by Recruit’s HR Technology segment.