LONDON (Reuters) – The number of online job adverts in Britain increased by 4% in the week to March 3 compared with the previous week, but was 20% lower than a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday.
The Bank of England (BoE) is closely monitoring Britain’s labour market for signs of further inflationary pressure.
Thursday’s data – which the ONS gets from job search engine Adzune – echo other mixed signals about the labour market.
A shortage of workers has intensified following Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ONS said 27% of businesses with at least 10 staff reported worker shortages in late February, similar to the 28% reported in early January.
Other indicators of the wider economy, including consumer confidence and business surveys, have shown improvement, easing worries about a lengthy recession.
The ONS said that spending on debit and credit cards rose by 3 percentage points in the week to March 2 compared with the same week in 2022.
Ad: Save every day with Amazon Deals: Check out today's daily deals on Amazon.
The credit and debit card spending figures, based on the BoE’s interbank payment flows, are not seasonally adjusted or adjusted for inflation, which was above 10% in January.
(Reporting by Suban Abdulla; editing by David Milliken)