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Vacancy Trends Issue 2

Published: August 2007

Vacancy Trends takes advantage of the re-continuation of detailed statistics for vacancies notified to the local Job Centres and for the types of job being sought by the unemployed.

Job Centres probably handle less than half of all vacancies and there is a bias towards less skilled jobs. However, Job Centres are intended to cater for the claimant unemployed whose average qualification level is also low. The Job Centre vacancies and “job sought” data therefore provide an opportunity to analyse the labour market experienced by the unemployed - and this is what Vacancy Trends sets out to do.

Vacancy Trends analyses

Trends in notified vacancies by:

• Occupation
• Industry
• 2003 Birmingham ward
• Comparison with the regional and national picture.

Unemployed to vacancy (U/V) ratios by:

• Occupation
• 2003 Birmingham ward
• Comparison with the regional and national picture
• The trend in the overall Birmingham U/V ratio over time.

Mismatch ratios between the occupational make-up of vacancies and the occupational make-up of the unemployed. An overall weighted mismatch ratio is constructed for Birmingham, and this is tracked over time.

In addition to the main Vacancy Trends publication, with its many detailed tables, a much shorter Vacancy Trends Summary is also available for download from this web page.