The move recorded by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG marks a sharp reversal from declines in job vacancies over the past eight months as companies took in the workers they scrambled to hire after pandemic lockdowns.
“January’s recruitment activity suggests that speculation about a shallower economic downturn may be justified,” Neil Carberry, chief executive officer of REC, said in a statement on Wednesday. Though higher demand from employers is helpful for workers, policymakers in the central bank are concerned that this is leading to more generous wage settlements, which in turn pushes up prices as workers have more to spend. With the cost of living rising faster than inflation, millions of public services workers from nurses to teachers and border control staff walked off the job in recent weeks to push for higher pay.