Full-time vacancies dry up in London

Permanent full-time jobs are increasingly hard to find in the United Kingdom capital, with the business advisory company KPMG and the trade body Recruitment and Employment Confederation, or REC, saying in their latest report the number of openings shrank in April for the seventh consecutive month.

The organizations' Permanent Placing Index said the cooling of London's permanent job market happened more quickly in April than it did in any other UK region — and at the fastest rate seen since January 2021, when a lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic was in place.

The index, which uses a score of 50 to indicate neither growth nor contraction of the labor market and scores of less than 50 to show the market cooling, registered 44.2 points in April after having been at 49.3 points in March.

Claire Warnes, a partner at KPMG UK, said businesses in the capital were "cautious about committing to permanent hires" during April because of economic uncertainty. She told the Financial Times newspaper many companies had, as a result of that economic uncertainty, announced recruitment freezes or delayed spending decisions. And employers who did have vacancies for permanent jobs often had difficulty finding candidates with the skills they needed.

The report said the stagnation of the permanent employment market was partly off set by a boom in the temporary jobs market, with the number of vacancies growing at the fastest rate for three months. The strongest demand was for part-time and temporary nurses and people in other medical and care-giving roles.

Neil Carberry, the REC's chief executive, said the cost-of-living crisis, in which the price of fuel and commodities has been rising more quickly than wages, has led to a decrease in demand for some types of jobs but an increase in the number of temporary jobs, showing there was "still plenty of opportunity out there".

But he said: "This data shows how uncertain many employers are feeling right now."

The Temporary Placing Index climbed to 53.3 points in April after having been at 52.5 points in March.

At the same time, more people were actively looking for work during April, according to anecdotal accounts from recruiters, the report added.

Experts said the shrinking number of permanent job vacancies in the capital and the growing number of people seeking employment could lead to smaller pay rises in the coming months, which should, in turn, help the Bank of England lower inflation, which is running at 10.1 percent.

City A.M., a free business-focused newspaper distributed in and around London, said the shift among employers from offering permanent contracts to offering part-time and temporary jobs was the result of them wanting to be able to jettison workers easily if the economy deteriorates further.