“Despite the uncertainty surrounding our departure from the EU in the final quarter of 2019, the UK job market remained resolute as the employment rate hit yet another record high.
“What's more, the fact that female employment also spiked is particularly promising. Indeed, with big businesses such as RBS injecting significant funding to support female entrepreneurs, it's likely that we will see this rate continue to grow.
"It isn’t all good news, though. While job vacancies were up quarter-on-quarter, there were still fewer jobs on offer compared to the same time last year and pay growth declined once more. It's clear that Brexit uncertainty meant that businesses were hesitant about investing in their hiring plans, especially with fewer candidates to choose from.
“However, our own January job market data suggests this could be changing, with a 2.8% increase in job openings year-on-year. Our data also reveals that candidate confidence is improving, as applications also increased by 5.7% year-on-year. While we'd expect these figures to soar at the start of a new year, businesses should take advantage of this while they can and push forward with their hiring efforts.”
