Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2018 to Question 174137 on Vacancies: West Midlands, what assessment she has made of trends in the number of vacancies on (a) Find a Job and (b) Universal Jobmatch for (i) permanent and (ii) contract positions since 2013.

The Vacancy Survey, run by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) is the source used to estimate the number of vacancies available. Further information is available on the ONS website at https://www.ons.gov.uk/.

‘Find a job’ is a live, self-service website which is constantly being used by employers to upload, edit and end job vacancies. As such, this means that numbers can change from minute to minute. As of 25 October 2018 there are over 184,000 vacancies available on this site.

Whilst management Information from the ‘Find a job’ website is useful for the Department and used to improve the service and ensure we’re providing the best service to employers and jobseekers, this information is not intended to represent labour market statistics and trends.