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

Job postings on Indeed UK made further gains in the latest fortnight. Job postings — a real-time measure of labour market activity — were 21.6% above the 1 February 2020, pre-pandemic baseline, seasonally adjusted, as of 13 August 2021. That was a 2.0 percentage point (ppt) gain from a fortnight ago. It was the eighteenth successive week of improvement in the job posting trend, as labour demand continues to strengthen. 

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 30 Jul 2021. There was a 21.6% change in UK job postings on Indeed from 01 Feb 2020 to 13 Aug 2021.

Hospitality & tourism pick up 

Hospitality & tourism job postings saw the biggest improvement in trend during the past fortnight, continuing a recent period of strong performance. This was followed by retail, dental, food preparation & service, loading & stocking and security & public safety. 

Weakening trends were seen in community & social service, social science, scientific research & development, nursing, construction and driving. 

Table titled “Hospitality & Tourism pick up.”
Table titled “Hospitality & Tourism pick up.” Indeed compared the percent change in UK job postings, between 01 February, 2020, and 13 Aug 2021 across various sectors divided into sections “strongest performers,” and “weakest performers.” The strongest performers were hospitality & tourism, retail and dental, while the weakest performers were community & social service, social science and scientific research & development.  

North East has strongest job posting recovery

The North East continues to lead the regional ranking, with jobs postings 54% above the pre-pandemic baseline. Wales is in second place (42%). 

London (6%), Northern Ireland (8%) and the South East (11%) continue to lag other regions. 

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 13 Aug 2021. The North East saw a 54% change, the largest, while London saw the lowest % change at 6%.

All but three cities and large towns above pre-pandemic levels

Job postings are now above pre-pandemic levels in all but three of the 63 cities and large towns we track, namely Aberdeen, Crawley and Aldershot. Aberdeen (oil and gas) and Crawley (aviation) have local economies highly exposed to specific sectors which have been affected by the pandemic. 

Postings are furthest above pre-pandemic levels in Middlesbrough, followed by Barnsley, Peterborough, Sunderland, Ipswich, Hull and Stoke. 

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. 

Table titled “Middlesbrough leads job postings recovery.”
Table titled “Middlesbrough leads job postings recovery.” This table shows the percentage change in job postings on Indeed UK since 01 Feb 2020, seasonally adjusted, to 13 August 2021. Middlesbrough saw a 71% change, the largest, while Aberdeen saw the lowest % change at -28%.

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.