Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index, January 2024
Small business job vacancies: down by 3,900
Small businesses with one to nine employees currently have 138,100 job vacancies nationwide—a decrease of 3,900 in December compared to November.
Monthly growth rate: down by 2.79%
The monthly decrease in December was 2.79% below the previous official benchmark of 142,000 small business job vacancies published in the Office for National Statistics’ December 2023 Vacancy Survey.*
By sector: transport and storage, and information and communication show growth
Eleven of the 13 sectors covered by the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index in the UK posted fewer small business job vacancies in December. Transport and storage (SIC H), and information and communication (SIC J) stand out as the only two sectors to see growth in December, with a monthly increase of 0.28% and 0.12% respectively.
Construction (SIC F), real estate (SIC L), and manufacturing (SIC C) contracted the fastest. These sectors report a monthly decrease of more than 6%.
By nation: small business vacancies fell fastest in Wales
Small business job vacancies were down in all four UK nations in December. Wales had the fastest monthly rate of decline at 9.65%, falling from 5,000 to 4,500 job vacancies. England contracted the slowest, with a monthly rate of decline of 2.93% and 3,700 fewer vacancies—falling from 126,100 to 122,400.
More information
Get all the details from the interactive Small Business Index dashboard.
