134,000 jobs still empty

Data from the Office of National Statistics found when compared to the previous quarter, this is an increase of more than a fifth (22.5%) and when compared with the previous year, it is a 305.8% rise.

Looking at the figures from the beginning of the year, the vacancies levels for January were at 29,000 and steadily increased over the course of the year.

Record high

This means the industry has the third highest rate of vacancies when compared with others as for the period July to September 2021, the human health and social work trade had the most at 172,000, followed by wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles industry, which had 143,000.

Overall, vacancies rose to a record high of 1.1m across all industries in July to September 2021, meaning hospitality job roles make up about 12% of all vacancies across all sectors.

The ONS stated while the rate of vacancy growth has recently slowed, the number of vacancies is still escalating across most industries including hospitality.

Previous data

The July to September period saw all industries above or equal to their January to March 2020 pre-pandemic levels, with the hospitality sector seeing the largest increase – up by 49,700 (59%).

The data also reinforced the growth in vacancies, alongside the difficulty in filling positions. The overall current ratio of 3.7 vacancies per 100 employee jobs is the highest on record and once again, the hospitality sector had the highest ratio at 5.9. This was up from the previous period (May to July) where the ratio was 5.6.

Data from last month (September) showed job vacancies in the sector had risen by 57,600 from June to August 2021​.

It also stated overall, the total number of job vacancies across all sectors in June to August 2021 was 1.034m – the first time vacancies has increased to more than 1m since records began.