The jobs market is getting tougher for those looking for work

More workers are entering the labour market as vacancies fall and unemployment rises. How will that affect pay growth, which is still undershooting inflation, asks James Moore

Commuters in Canary Wharf in London (PA)

There was a certain synchronicity in Vodafone announcing plans to axe 11,000 jobs from the group’s workforce on the day the Office for National Statistics (ONS) unveiled its latest look at Britain’s noticeably tightening jobs market.

The good news, from the perspective of the UK economy as a whole, is that many of the negative changes wrought by the pandemic are being unwound.

The bad? Labour shortages are still a bigger problem than unemployment – but the jobs market is getting tougher for those trying to navigate it as vacancies fall.