At the end of the second UK lockdown, the focus is on the economy’s recovery from the effects of the pandemic. The furlough scheme is moving to the next stage [1] and businesses are keen to reopen where they have been forced to close or to get back to some sort of normality where they have been required to make changes.
One indicator of the economy’s recovery is employment and job opportunities available. In the first week of November, there were 1.36 million active job adverts in the UK. As we might expect, the majority of these adverts were in sectors which have not been adversely affected by lockdown. Nurses, heavy goods vehicle drivers, food operatives, carpenters and joiners and cleaning staff were the most advertised positions and showed a growth in the number of adverts between March and October 2020. The job adverts showing a decline in the number of adverts were for hairdressers and barbers, primary and nursery teachers, fitness instructors, chefs and bar staff.
“One of the most interesting developments we are seeing in terms of employer demand is the ‘London lag’, which is seeing the capital return to pre-lockdown levels at a much slower rate than other regions of the country,” said Matthew Mee, director of workforce intelligence at Emsi.
He went on to say, “when we couple this with the fact that furlough take-up has been higher in London than elsewhere, and that the highest rise in claimant counts has been in the London commuter belt, it seems that the restrictions since March may well have had a greater proportionate impact on the capital than on other regions of the country.”
London is a key location for many office-based positions and is also a tourist hub. Many people who work in London do not live there and with the worldwide move towards working from home, the bars and restaurants which have opened in London to cater for the office workers are not seeing the same level of trade. The tourism and arts industries, upon which London relies heavily, have also been hard hit during lockdown with travel restrictions and the closure of theatres and performances.
