LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s labour market is losing some of its inflationary heat with vacancies and advertised starting salaries falling in July for the first time this year, according to a survey published on Monday.
Job search website Adzuna also said the number of job-seekers per vacancy rose slightly in July but the overall state of the labour market remained tight.
“Whilst it’s natural to see vacancies fall during the summer months, as companies traditionally slow hiring, the early figures for July’s jobs data will demonstrate to UK policymakers that inflation truly should be on a downward trajectory,” Andrew Hunter, a co-founder of Adzuna, said.
The Bank of England is looking closely at the labour market as it considers how much further it needs to raise interest rates to smother high inflation.
Official data published last week showed basic wages rose at the fastest pace since at least 2001 in the three months to June but there were also signs that employers were turning more cautious about hiring.
Adzuna said the average advertised salary fell by 0.15% between June and July.
But, in a sign of how many employers are still struggling to fill their job roles, the month-on-month fall of 1.1% in vacancies was just half the size of the drop reported over the same period last year.
Adzuna said employers were becoming more secretive about pay rates as the labour market cooled with over half of adverts not disclosing salary details for the first time.
(Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)
