Employment picture more stable after difficult years

THE number of vacancies advertised at the Job Centre has risen by a third in a year, particularly driven by the retail and hospitality sectors.

It had more than 300 jobs advertised in December, up by 34% on the same period in 2019.

‘We’ve certainly been very busy since the end of lockdowns,’ said Job Centre lead Dean Slater.

However, the Job Centre has been able to cope with the high demand without the need for additional resources.

Although the last two years have seen a lot of instability and change across the job market, Mr Slater anticipated more stable, predictable trends in the future, as borders re-open and sectors relying on guest workers could once again find it easier to fill vacancies with people from outside the island.

‘Since the second lockdown in March, the number of unemployed people has decreased consistently, and I think we’ll see a big slow down now because we’re left with the job seekers that have a variety of barriers to find suitable work,’ he said.

The UK has seen similar employment trends to Guernsey, and it has also returned to its historic average of 5% unemployment, while Guernsey has returned to approximately 1%.

Unemployment was the highest-ever recorded at the end of the first lockdown, but Mr Slater said the figure was now on par with pre-pandemic numbers.

He would clearly remember the peaks of the first lockdown’s unemployment figures.

‘There were 1,631 individuals wholly unemployed at the end of lockdown,’ he said.

‘We, at Job Centre, would like to take credit for getting people back to work, but a lot of those people were able to re-enter the job market with very little intervention when things reopened.’

He reported that unemployment figures for December 2021 were below those from the same period in 2019 – the first month that has been seen since the start of the pandemic.

In December 2021, there were 313 people without a job in Guernsey, compared 336 in 2019.

Mr Slater did not believe that the difference between pre- and post-pandemic was significant or attributable to any change in strategy or policy, but rather a result of chance.

‘Historically, Guernsey has always been at approximately 1% unemployment, and we hope the latest numbers show a return to constant and stable employment figures,’ he said.

‘Of course we will always strive to attain nirvana where there is zero unemployment, but show us a jurisdiction that is perfect in this regard, and we’ll follow suit.’

Although unemployment figures have returned to normal, historic levels, Mr Slater said job vacancies and demand for labour remained high.