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Construction and science vacancies still 50pc down

Wednesday 14th July 2010

Current vacancies in construction, science and manufacturing are running at half the level they were before recession began, according to the latest TUC research.

Analysis of the latest redundancy and vacancy figures show that there were 10,000 vacancies in construction in May 2010, compared with 28,000 in April 2008 - the first month in which the UK moved into recession - which is a fall of 64%.

Science was the next worst hit sector with vacancies falling by 49%, followed by manufacturing (-46%) and then transport (-33%).

Across the economy there were 492,000 job vacancies in May 2010, a fall of 29% compared to April 2008, when there were 692,000 vacancies.

The analysis also shows that the number of redundancies in construction and among scientific and technical professionals was twice as high in the first quarter of 2010 than the second quarter of 2008, when the UK went into recession.

Across the economy, the number of redundancies in the first quarter of 2010 was 177,000 - an increase of 46% compared to April-June 2008 (121,000).

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "Economic recovery remains fragile. Even on the most optimistic assumptions recovery is not strong enough to generate new jobs for those being made redundant in both the private and public sectors as a result of the spending cuts.

"Employers and unions worked very hard to keep unemployment below 2.5 million despite the deepest recession for 60 years, but this will make it harder for companies to take on more jobs as the economy recovers.

"At best we can expect a jobless recovery and at worst a double-dip increase in the dole queues.

"Mass unemployment - particularly among the young - looks set to be a permanent part of the economic landscape. It is hard to see how the deficit can be reduced with tools that do so much damage to the wider economy's ability to create jobs, generate growth and pay taxes."

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