Buckinghamshire’s claimant count, March 2018

Buckinghamshire’s claimant count rose for a third successive month in March to stand at 3,115, the highest level since September 2014.

Despite this rise the claimant count remained unchanged at 0.9 per cent of working age residents, the 4th lowest rate among the 27 county council areas, ranking 3rd among the 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).  Over the last year Buckinghamshire’s claimant count has risen by 4.2 per cent, less than half the national rate of increase and the 2nd and 3rd lowest rises among county councils and LEPs respectively.

Table 1: Claimant Count, March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

There were 7,454 advertised job openings in Buckinghamshire in March, 3.8 per cent fewer (292 openings) than in March 2017 but 14.8 per cent (962) more than were posted in February.  There are now 2.4 openings per claimant in Buckinghamshire and 1.5 for every unemployed resident, compared to 0.9 and 0.5 across Great Britain.

The most commonly advertised roles in March were sales related occupations including retail sales representatives, with 303 openings, ahead of programmers and software development professionals (286), other administrative occupations (including administration assistants and clerks) (219), nurses (216), and marketing and sales directors (213).

In the last year the strongest increase in job openings has been for sales occupations, up 2,100 (33.4 per cent) ahead of administrative and secretarial roles (1,299, 13.6) and skilled trades (636, 15.2).  Professional occupations remain the most sought, accounting for 30.4 per cent of all openings despite falling 1,537 (6.8 per cent) in the last year.  The number of openings also fell for process, plant and machine operatives and caring, leisure and other service roles, as shown in chart 6 below.

In the last year the most sought baseline skills have been communication skills (15,464), ahead of organisational skills (6,950), Microsoft Excel (5,527), planning (5,494), being detail orientated (5,205), Microsoft Office (3,658), creativity (3,623), and problem solving (3,483).  The most sought specialised skill was customer service (6,997), sought by recruiters to roles in all occupational classifications.

Chart 1: Buckinghamshire’s claimant count over time, to March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

Table 2: Claimant count by age group, March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

Chart 2: Aylesbury Vale’s claimant count over time, to March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

Chart 3: Chiltern’s claimant count over time, to March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

Chart 4: South Bucks’ claimant count over time, to March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

Chart 5: Wycombe’s claimant count over time, to March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

Table 3: Claimant count by sought occupation (JSA only), March 2018

Source: DWP, 2018

Chart 6: Change in job openings by occupation (year to March 2018 & 2017)

Source: Labour Insight, Burning Glass, 2018