Many industries are in crisis with vacancies topping one million for 11 weeks straight in the UK, a new report warns.
More than 1.1 million roles remain unfilled as jobseekers hit by the pingdemic are forced to isolate, there is a lack of skilled staff and hundreds of thousands remain furloughed.
This includes almost 31,000 retail vacancies between July 19 and 25 – an increase of 14% in the last month.
There are also 10,000 vacancies in supermarkets and 77,000 in hospitality and catering, according to research by jobs site Adzuna.
Meanwhile, 90,000 jobs are open in trade and construction and 84,000 in logistics and warehousing.
It comes after figures showed some 689,313 people in England and Wales had been pinged in the week to July 21 – a new record.
Employers are said to be amping up staff perks in a bid to attract staff.
Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter said the pingdemic hit ‘just as businesses start to get to grips with filling open roles’.
He continued: ‘The struggle to hire is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses, with hundreds of thousands of workers still on furlough, hesitation among others to go back to work, fewer overseas workers available to fill positions, and a lack of skilled staff in some sectors.
‘The pingdemic has compounded these issues, as many jobseekers are forced to self-isolate over attending interviews or starting work.
‘This is on top of absences from existing staff who have been pinged.
‘It’s a critical moment for industries like the wedding sector and some smaller independent shops and restaurants, who are relying on the summer period to make up for lost income needed to keep their businesses afloat.’
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said one in 10 of the trade association’s businesses have had to close their sites in the past month.
On top of this, one in five have been forced to ‘significantly adjust their offer or services in order to cope with the pandemic’.
Ms Nicholls told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The pingdemic has hit at the same time as the reopening, they haven’t had time to rebuild cash reserves and so they are in quite a fragile state and the hit to revenues as a result of the pingdemic is running at about 15 to 20% of revenues for those businesses that are affected, so it is a significant suppression just at the point in time when these businesses needed to start recovering from about 16 months worth of closure and restrictions.’
UKHospitality is recommending that workers have daily and regular tests as many young staff still have only one jab.
The Government expanded the list of sectors able to dodge self-isolation to include double-jabbed people working in prisons, defence, communications, space, fish and HMRC last week.
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