// Retail job ads in the first week of the current lockdown were down 48.6%
// The UK jobs market overall fared a lot better
New research has shown that job vacancies in the UK retail industry fell by almost half during the first full week of the current lockdown restrictions across the country.
According to data from CV-Library, job postings in retail plunged 48.6 per cent year-on-year.
However, CV-Library stressed that this was a tough comparison, given that in January 2020 the economy was stable and the world hadn’t been impacted by the pandemic.
READ MORE: Retailers cut almost 177,000 jobs in 2020
The current lockdown restrictions in all four countries mark the first time the whole of the UK has been under lockdown since spring last year.
While retail wasn’t the only sector that was dealt a blow in job availabilities due to the pandemic, when factoring all the sectors the UK job market overall revealed a resilience in the first week of lockdown.
CV-Library said that when compared to the first full week of the nationwide lockdown in March last year, the number of job postings were up by 91.8 per cent.
Even compared to the first week of November, when England and Wales were both in a second lockdown, the market also fared much better, with job postings up 0.8 per cent.
“The impact of Covid-19 is still clear to see within the individual sectors, but the overall initial impact of this third lockdown appears to be the least damaging, proving that we learning to navigate and adapt in these unprecedented times,” CV-Library CEO Lee Biggins said.
“January is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for the job market and we must acknowledge this seasonal boost.”
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