Clerical jobs are the first place companies look to make savings when they are trying to offset the blow of general cost inflation, he added. 

“And obviously they are looking at what they can automate.” 

At the same time, the IT sector is letting staff go after companies over-hired during the pandemic, Mr Carberry said. 

The construction sector is grappling with a massive downturn in housebuilding as high mortgage rates hammer buyer demand. 

By contrast, sectors that still have strong job outlooks, such as healthcare and education, are spread evenly across the country, Mr Carberry said. Britain’s stem engineering industry, which also has a strong outlook, is also primarily based outside the capital.

Overall demand continued to fall with the total number of job vacancies declining for the 17th rolling quarterly fall between August and October. 

There were 957,000 vacancies, down 21.2pc year-on-year, meaning there were 257,000 fewer available roles compared to the same period in 2022. However, this was still 156,000 higher than at the start of 2020, before the pandemic labour shortage began. 

The UK workforce between July and September this year totalled 32.98m, up by 27,000 compared to in May.

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