Over 1 million job vacancies in the uk as ‘pingdemic’ takes over

Tens of thousands of job vacancies must be filled “urgently” or with an “instant start” according to a leading employment search engine.

Adzuna found that 72,000 job adverts are currently labelled as ‘urgent’ in the UK with employers looking for staff to start right away.

This comes as the NHS COVID-19 app ‘pinged’ a record 689,313 people in England and Wales in the week up to 21 July.

The number increased by 70,000 compared to the previous week.

Vacancies in retail have increased by 14% in the last month up to 31,000.

There are currently 10,000 vacancies in supermarkets, 77,000 in hospitality and catering, 90,000 in trade and construction, and 84,000 in logistics and warehousing.

1,116,454 vacancies were advertised between July 19 and July 25 2021.

That being the 11th consecutive week of vacancies topping a million.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said:

“The pingdemic has hit just as businesses start to get to grips with filling open roles.

“The struggle to hire is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses, with hundreds of thousands of workers still on furlough, hesitation among others to go back to work, fewer overseas workers available to fill positions, and a lack of skilled staff in some sectors.

“The pingdemic has compounded these issues, as many jobseekers are forced to self-isolate over attending interviews or starting work.”