UK's surging jobs market shows signs of stabilisation

[LONDON] A surge in demand for workers in Britain is showing some signs of stabilising, according to a survey published on Friday (Apr 1) that may provide some comfort to the Bank of England as it worries about the risk of long-term inflation pressure.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said new job postings fell by 25 per cent in the last week of March from a week earlier, returning to the kind of increase seen in mid-January.

"The jobs market has been super-heated in the first few months of this year, and was always likely to stabilise in the spring. We may be seeing the first signs of that now," REC chief executive Neil Carberry said.

"Over the next few weeks, we will see whether this is the cooling we expected, or a slower market developing as employers factor rising inflation into their plans."

Staff shortages are a worry for the Bank of England which has raised interest rates at each of its last 3 meetings to try to stop the jump in inflation to a 30-year high of 6.2 per cent from turning into a longer-term price growth problem.

REC said demand was for hairdressers and barbers as well as security and bar staff and there were also big increases in adverts for other skilled occupations such as veterinarians and crane drivers.

The total of 1.83 million active jobs ads had been stable since early March, it said. REUTERS