The recruitment data company, Adzuna, reported on Monday that UK job advertisements reached a nearly three-year low last month, falling 15 per cent from the previous year, which suggests a weakening labour market, Reuters reported on Monday. The Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey, praised the "full employment" situation last week, with the unemployment rate at 3.8 per cent, even though the economy faced a mild recession in the last six months of the previous year. However, the Bank of England hopes to reduce wage growth from over 6 per cent to lower inflation, which is still twice its goal. According to Adzuna, UK job ads dropped to 867,436 in January, the lowest since April 2021 and down from over 1 million the year before. This was based on an analysis of over 1,000 online sources, indicating that hiring became easier for employers after the COVID-19 pandemic, when vacancies reached more than 1.3 million. Job seekers per advertised vacancy increased to 1.81 from 1.48 year-on-year, but February's early data indicated stable vacancies, according to Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter. The Office for National Statistics reported an 18 per cent yearly drop in job vacancies for the three months to January. Adzuna reported that the average starting salary, which employers only revealed for less than half of the advertised jobs, was £38,168 ($48,450), 3.0 per cent higher than the previous year.
