The latest labour market insights dashboard shown below reflects high-level indicators of the Dorset labour market in July 2020, with a particular reference to the evolving impact of COVID-19.
Read brief commentary to the dashboard in our Labour market insight commentary July 2020. This complements our observations of Labour market general trends July 2020 and should be read in conjunction with the Understanding LMI during COVID-19 guidance on current issues when reading and interpreting labour market statistics at this time.
As lockdown measures eased, July data shows tentative signs of recovery in the labour market.
The overall level of vacancies in Dorset in July was 4,251, an increase of over 20% compared to June – a rate of increase higher than the national average of 10% (when using the same source of labour market intelligence). Vacancy levels remain over 1200 lower than at the same time last year, but the gap compared with trends for this time last year has narrowed and there was a noted increase of vacancies in Accommodation and Food, Construction and Manufacturing sectors, which are among the sectors most reliant on contact and therefore most affected by lockdown measures.
Comparing vacancy data with the number of people on the claimant count (i.e. claiming benefits and treated as being unemployed - check Understanding LMI during COVID-19 for the limitations of this unemployment indicator), there are now 5.9 claimants for every vacancy. This has fallen from a peak of 7.5 in May, as vacancies have recovered and the claimant count has stabilised. However, 5.9 claimants remains well above its pre-crisis levels (of around 1.9 claimants per vacancy in February) and increased among young people aged between 16 and 24 and the pattern of higher ratio in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole compared to the rest of Dorset remained consistent.
The monthly dashboards including latest labour market statistics and commentary, monitoring the impact of COVID-19 in Dorset will be produced until the end of 2020.