UK vacancies rose to 712,000 for April to June, up from 705,000, in the labour market bulletin the Office for National Statistics published on Tuesday 21 July1. That is the first quarterly increase since the decline this beat has tracked began. The 705,000 reading had taken vacancies below their pre-pandemic baseline for the first time, and June's bulletin recorded a five-year low.
The rest of the release moves the same way. Payrolled employees remain down 85,000 on the year, a far smaller fall than the 210,000 recorded in May. Real regular pay grew 0.3% on a CPIH basis, up from 0.1%. CPIH is the inflation measure that includes owner-occupier housing costs. Unemployment held at 4.9%.
Nothing in the bulletin mentions AI, automation or technology. The ONS still runs no AI breakdown, which leaves the agency measuring Britain's labour market unable to say whether the improvement it has just recorded happened in the roles most exposed to the technology or in the roles least exposed to it. Every ONS release on this beat since May has moved against workers. This one did not. Two more quarters like it would be needed before anyone could call the decline over.
