In the era, where unemployment is the biggest concern for many countries, the UK has finally surpassed the issue and job vacancies have outpaced unemployment. However, inflation is still nibbling at people’s living standards and making it difficult for working people to afford their daily necessities.

For the very first time in record, job vacancies and employment opportunities are higher in number than the number of unemployed people in the UK. It’s a fortunate change in the economy since the unemployment rate fell to the lowest it has been in 50 years- 3.7% only between January and March. The job openings have rocketed to the high of 1.3 million.

However, people continue to face inflation. This is a problem that is expected to intensify due to the rising prices of food and fuel. Wages are not enough to keep up with the ever-rocketing prices. Therefore, despite the cease of unemployment and more job opportunities, the biggest concern is workers with low wages seeing inflation nibble away all their living standards.

However, if we have a peek at the other side of the coin- the figures have shown that there has been a huge surge in the number of people shifting from the circle of economic inactivity. Unemployed people between the ages of sixteen and sixty-four have now sought employment. As more and more people feel obliged to step into the working-class population, the data has observed there is an obvious rise in the employees who are jumping from one job to another quicker than before. The surprising fact is that this quick switching of jobs is not usually driven by dismissal but by resignation.

Despite the total employment rate being the highest it has ever been, it still stays below it's pre-pandemic Statistics. The pandemic had brought a very rooted change in the economy and has very obviously affected job vacancies and employment rates as well. The pandemic started and with it, about half a million people completely disassociated themselves from the economic activity and labor market. This didn’t stop the availability of job vacancies to reach a high of 1.3 million.

If we talk about the numbers, the excluding bonuses and typical wages have risen by 4.2% just in two months- between January and March. This rise has not been able to cope with the even quick rise of the cost of living in the UK. The cost of living is going up and reached 7% in March and is still expected to the intensity with time. What these figures tell us is that when the wages are adjusted to the benefit of rising prices they dropped by 1.2%- marking the biggest downgrade since 2013.

There are however some sectors such as construction and finance still supporting strong bonuses which means that the total pay is growing faster than the rising prices on average.