THE working world is a jobseeker’s market, with Dorset employers facing a labour shortage and posts going unfilled for longer, research suggests.

The latest Labour Market Insight report from Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) says job vacancies in the county are at a level not seen since 2013.

There were 22,804 vacancies in the third quarter of this year – 35 per cent more than the last quarter before the pandemic and 60 per cent up on the same period in 2020.

For the whole 12 months ending in June 2021, there were 5,000 more people unemployed in Dorset than in the previous year, making an unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent. The rate was 0.1 percentage points down on the previous quarter.

Rebecca Davies, head of enterprise, skills and industry at Dorset LEP, said: “In the aftermath of a pandemic that displaced thousands of jobs and forced millions into furlough leave, a labour market with growing availability of jobs and relatively stable employment levels is welcome news.

“Yet businesses competing over a small talent pool are finding it increasingly difficult to hire new staff, as a lack of applicants is creating resource gaps and impacting business recovery. In Dorset this spike in demand adds to a well-documented pre-Covid labour shortage issue that placed Dorset LEP in the top three areas nationally for employer reported hard-to-fill and skills shortage vacancies.”

“Intensity” of job postings – the number of times a vacancy is posted before it is filled – was up, as was the duration of postings.

Jobs for software developers and engineers saw the greatest intensity of postings. The duration of postings was highest for care workers, at 46 days, followed by nurses at 44 days and project managers at 42 days.

Ms Davies added: “Higher posting intensity illustrates recruiters are working harder to reach applicants, but higher posting duration shows there are fewer applicants which drives the duration of postings up. “Our latest labour market analysis unravels the complex puzzle of contributing factors, including pandemic and EU-exit developments, accelerating existing trends and discusses how furlough and out-of-work benefits relate to shortages and how much these have to do with job quality.”

She added: “Working in partnership, the report explores how we create a skills ecosystem approach looking at both supply and demand, focusing on training and investment in technology, research and innovation to address skills shortages in the future.”