Job vacancies fall below 700,000 for first time in over five years

Job vacancies have fallen below 700,000 for the first time in over five years, official data has shown, as the UK labour market continued to show signs of weakening. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said vacancy levels decreased in the three months to September by 21,000. It means the number of job vacancies stood at around 691,000, the lowest level since April 2021. Data also showed that the the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.7 per cent and wage growth continued to slow. Annual growth in employees earnings was 3.7 per cent, excluding bonuses, which was higher than economists expectations of 3.6 per cent. Including bonuses, statisticians said annualised pay growth was also 3.7 per cent between June and August, which was below expectations. This was lower than for the three-month period between May and July. The number of vacancies has seen its largest fall since the start of the year, concentrated mainly within smaller businesses, which cite increa