UK vacancies tumble to lowest level in over four years

KPMG and REC report

UK job opportunities suffered their steepest decline in demand in November since August 2020, according to the KPMG and Recruitment and Employers Confederation (REC) UK Report on Jobs, today (9 December).

The November decline marked the 13th consecutive month of falling staff numbers following a "severe drop in demand […] for permanent workers", according to the survey. As a result, the vacancies index declined to 43.9 last month from 46.1 in October. Jon Holt, group chief executive and UK senior partner at KPMG, noted that businesses are currently looking at the "prospect of increasing employee costs following the Budget", which has prompted a slowdown in hiring processes across boards. "While the data was already heading in that direction, permanent placements saw their steepest r...