LONDON – London vacancies are set to remain below pre-Covid-19 levels, lagging behind the rest of Britain after hybrid working trimmed demand for shop assistants and baristas near offices.
Job postings in the capital are stuck at 25 per cent below where they were just before the beginning of the pandemic, after a deterioration that began in 2023, according to data from recruitment site Indeed.
Outside of south-east England, all other British regions are seeing new jobs at or even surpassing pre-Covid numbers.
London vacancies are “never going to get back” to above levels seen in February 2020, said Mr Jack Kennedy, a senior economist at Indeed.
While part of the slowdown in hiring could be reversed by improving economic conditions, some retail, hospitality and leisure jobs lost due to lower footfall might be gone forever.
“There is going to be a lasting headwind from hybrid working,” Mr Kennedy added. “Unless it completely goes back to five days a week in the office, then we’re gonna see a drag from that aspect, at least on the jobs in local services that used to rely on commuters and spending on all sorts of things.”
Fewer office workers splashing out on lattes and after-work pints is one among a long list of challenges that have scarred the hospitality sector in recent years.
Hotels, pubs and restaurants had to lift wages and prices after they were disproportionately hit by the previous Conservative government’s policies, including two back-to-back big increases in the minimum wage, higher alcohol taxes and stricter limits on work visas.
That has turned the services sector into the main concern in the Bank of England’s (BOE) fight against inflation, effectively prolonging the pain of high borrowing costs.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is considering reducing
