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Vacancies

Answer

[holding answer 9 September 2009]: Available information is shown in the following tables.

Number of job vacancies in Great Britain advertised by Jobcentre Plus in each of the last six months
2009	Live unfilled vacancies
February	238,554
March	231,908
April	212,718
May	217,700
June	211,378
July	205,457
Notes:
1. Data are unrounded, and not seasonally adjusted.
2. The Jobcentre Plus data does not cover the whole UK economy. Coverage relates just to vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus and as such represent a market share of vacancies throughout the whole economy. This proportion varies over time, according to the occupation of the vacancy and industry of the employer, and by local area. Comprehensive estimates of all job vacancies (not just those notified to Jobcentre Plus) are available from the monthly ONS Vacancy Survey since April 2001, based on a sample of some 6,000 enterprises. However, the ONS survey is currently designed to provide national estimates only.
3. The stocks of live unfilled vacancies reflect more accurately job opportunities available via Jobcentre Plus. In the case of unfilled vacancies, use of the figures on live vacancies is recommended (i.e. excluding suspended vacancies), and this is the default option. Live vacancies may still include some vacancies which have already been filled or are otherwise no longer open to recruits, due to natural lags in procedures for following up vacancies with employers.
4. Jobcentre Plus figures are published at: www.nomisweb.co.uk
Source:
Jobcentre Plus labour market system.

Office for National Statistics: UK Vacancy Survey
	Level of vacancies
December 2008 to February 2009	445,000
January to March 2009	444,700
February to April 2009	451,200
March to May 2009	444,200
April to June 2009	434,400
May to July 2009	437,700
Notes:
1. Data are rounded to the nearest hundred, displayed in thousands and are seasonally adjusted three-month averages.
2. Excludes agriculture, forestry and fishing.
3. April, May and June data on the ONS monthly vacancies estimate has been revised and July data are provisional.
4. ONS monthly vacancies estimates published at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/LatestData.xls
Source:
Office for National Statistics Vacancy Survey.

We do not have a recent estimate of the proportion of vacancies in the UK economy advertised at Jobcentre Plus. There have been some one-off surveys that have estimated the Jobcentre Plus share of all vacancies. In 2002, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) used one such survey to estimate the proportion of total vacancies advertised at jobcentres at 44 per cent. Allowing for sampling variation, the ratio was likely to be in the range of around a third to a half. However, this estimate is likely to have changed over time.Although we have estimates of the total number of vacancies in the UK economy from the ONS Vacancy Survey, the data from Jobcentre Plus and the ONS Vacancy Survey are not directly comparable, and so should not be used together to produce such an estimate. The Vacancy Survey is a sample-based survey of businesses in the UK and is seasonally adjusted, whereas the Jobcentre Plus data is administrative data that is subject to a high level of seasonality. In addition, there are coverage issues, with the Vacancy Survey covering only civilian vacancies and excluding agriculture, forestry and fishing, whereas the Jobcentre Plus data includes non-civilian vacancies. Both measures are snap-shots of the number of opportunities available at a particular point in time and do not reflect the dynamism of the labour market that sees thousands of new job vacancies come up every day.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

499 c307-8W; 290709

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Vacancies

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk