U.K. Wages Rise With Post-Lockdown Scramble for Staff

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U.K. wages are rising as companies scramble to recruit workers to help them recover after the last coronavirus restrictions eased in July, a survey showed.

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation, whose jobs report was one of the first to flag labor shortages in the second quarter, counted a near-record numbers of online job adverts posted last week. It was the fourth-highest weekly figure since the start of the pandemic.

“Recruiters are working flat out to help find the best people, but there are shortages of workers in almost every sector,” said Kate Shoesmith, deputy chief executive officer of the REC. “This is starting to translate into higher pay and better benefits for some workers.”

The challenge has raised alarm bells at the Bank of England, shifting its concerns away from unemployment and toward the potential inflationary pressures of rising wages. The central bank last week noted an increase in pay settlements as well as signs of upward pay pressures more broadly.

The travel sector is the next to start seeking more staff after the government announced that it would end quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated visitors from the U.S. and Europe. On the recruitment platform Indeed Flex, job postings from hotel operators rose by 21% in the first week of August.

“We are also seeing hoteliers willing to increase the pay rate and benefits, which is necessarily to attract talent back to the job market,” Indeed Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Flex Jack Beamon said in a statement.

The dearth of workers was also exacerbated by more than a million people being swept into a “pingdemic” -- forced to isolate after receiving a notification from a government test-and-trace app that they had come into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.

Jobs for photographers, audio-visual and broadcasting equipment operators surged the most in the survey. Big declines were recorded for teachers and play-workers. Four of the top 10 regions with growth in job postings were in the North West of England. Four of the bottom 10 were in Scotland.

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