Redundancies drive biggest jump in job-seekers since 2020

The KPMG and REC Report on Jobs showed that both the number of employees securing new jobs had fallen alongside the number of vacancies, although not as fast as in previous months.

The report’s seasonally adjusted staff availability index, a measure of the number of people looking for jobs, hit 62.2 in May, up from 60.4 the month before. It has been rising since last March.

The increase was attributed to “a mixture of redundancies, higher unemployment and reduced demand for staff”, the report said.

The number of people finding permanent jobs through recruiters has now fallen for 20 consecutive months.

Demand for staff in the form of vacancies also fell, although the decline was described as “fractional”.

Jon Holt, chief executive of KPMG in the UK, said the figures showed “complexities in the current labour market”.

He said: “The big picture is that unemployment is historically low with the ease of filling vacancies back to pre-pandemic levels.

“Taken together with today’s data and expected interest rate cuts, inflation easing and increased consumer confidence over the summer, we will hopefully move towards a better economic outlook for the second half of 2024.”

Official data showed last month that the unemployment rate hit 4.3pc between January and March, up from 3.8pc in October to December.