Cheer Up - The Number of (Crap) Job Vacancies are at a Record High!

According to the Office for National Statistics the number of job vacancies in the UK hit a new (presumably all time) record in December 2021 when there were 1.25 million vacancies...

On the surface this sounds like it's good news, and a possible antidote to the looming threat of inflation, rising interest rates, reduced consumption and economic slump.

Presumably if there's such a huge gap in the labour market, IF we leave things to the market then wages are going to have to increase which should help more people deal with the impending cost of living crises.

(Until those higher wages lead to more inflation, but that's another story.)

But these are mainly crap jobs...

With a few exceptions, such as the increasing growth in surveying and mining jobs (presumably UK companies hiring highly qualified people who generally won't be working in the UK), MOST of these job vacancies are just crap jobs that most people don't want.

NB by crap, I mean the experience of working in them is crap - stressful, de-valuing, over-surveilled, underpaid, not necessarily without any intrinsic value.

For example, the largest number of vacancies are in the health and social care sector (vital, but covid-stressful) and then the retail sector, and unless you're running you're own business, that's going to be pretty mundane whether your front of house or back of house, and not that well paid either.

It's also interesting to note that the level of exposure to the public and covid-19 correlates highly with the number of vacancies, something we know thanks to this research by the IFS....

And probably unsurprisingly, MOST job vacancies are low skilled, requiring no to little preparation to be able to do said jobs....

So YES there are plenty of job vacancies out there ATM, the problem the UK is that how to fill them in a post-Brexit, covid-restricted era.

Given that there's no political will to return to a pre-pandemic level of foreign workers, and given that public money is tight, things could get VERY unpleasant for the unemployed in coming years - as the government takes measures to steer them towards these crap job vacancies, possibly by restricting benefits.

I don't really see that they've got any other option.

I'm just thankful I don't need one of these crap jobs myself!

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