Coronavirus: Job postings fell 16% in November with catering the worst-hit sector

The number of job postings in November dropped by 15.8% year-on-year and 1.1% compared to October, CV-Library revealed.

Lee Biggins, CEO of CV-Library, noted that normally, these figures “would be hugely disappointing but, with the nation in lockdown since 5 November, this data is quite encouraging.”

“In a week where a number of retail giants folded and as we enter a much tighter set of tiered restrictions, this resilience will be severely tested and it remains to be seen if the UK job market can weather the next few months as well at is has in November,” he added.

Job postings fluctuated “wildly” by sector, the report said, with catering down 32.3% month-on-month and 71.1% year-on year, and retail falling 28.2% month-on-month and 59.4% year-on year.

This unsurprising given how badly the hospitality and retail sectors have been hit during the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns.

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Things are not generally looking up for both. The imminent collapse of Arcadia will have a “profound” impact on the UK high street and puts thousands of jobs at risk, experts have warned.

As many as 50,000 licensed premises could keep their doors closed after the end of the national lockdown amid the start of new tiered restrictions in England on Wednesday, a new study from from research consultancy CGA and AlixPartners has revealed.

Meanwhile, job postings in distribution saw a 34.3% uptick in postings month-on-month and 40.5% year-on-year, according to CV-Library.

The cities that saw the largest fall in job postings year-on-year and “felt the toughest impact of the lockdown” included Aberdeen, where they were down 50%, Southampton (down 28.2%) and London (down 27.4%).

Postings were down 26.3% in both Edinburgh and Leeds, while they fell around 21% in Manchester and Glasgow.

The report also showed that job applications have dropped by 14.4% month-on-month and 4.4% year-on-year.

READ MORE: Arcadia and Debenhams woes leave 27,000 jobs in the balance

Biggins seemed positive about the prospect of securing a job in December, which he said is usually a slow month for the job market.

“As we emerge from the lockdown in this most unpredictable year… we expect to see businesses still hiring and encourage candidates to keep up their searches. There is still time to secure a new position before 2020 ends.”

Last month, it was reported that UK unemployment rose at its fastest pace in more than a decade, with redundancies surging to a record high between July and September.

The unemployment rate reached 4.8% in the three months to September, up from 4.5% a month earlier and as expected by analysts, according to the Office for National Statistics.

It marked the largest quarterly and annual increase in unemployment numbers since 2009, with 1.62 million people out of work between July and September. Britain lost 782,000 jobs on employer payrolls between March and October, another 33,000 higher than the previous month’s figures.

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