Small biz job vacancies show slowest rate of decrease since March
In the UK in August, small businesses with one to nine employees had 2,000 fewer job vacancies nationally. That’s a monthly decrease of 1.31% to 155,000 vacancies compared to the previous official benchmark of 157,000 in July’s Vacancy Survey, published by the Office for National Statistics.*
This is the slowest rate of decline since the Index was launched in March 2023.
Small business job vacancies decline in every sector
All 13 sectors covered by the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index posted fewer job vacancies at small businesses in August compared to July. The three sectors with the largest declines were:
Wholesale and retail: down by 400, with a monthly decrease of 1.69% to 20,700 small business job vacancies. This sector includes all product-based businesses that sell to retailers or directly to consumers.
Transport and storage: down by 300 to 10,500 small business job vacancies. This is a monthly decrease of 2.31% — the fastest rate of decline across all sectors. This sector includes commercial and passenger transport, warehouse storage and delivery services.
Finance and insurance: down by 200 to 7,200 small business job vacancies. The monthly decrease of 2.22% is the second fastest rate of decline across all sectors. In addition to insurance companies, this sector includes pension, investment and fund management businesses.
Small business hiring fell fastest in Wales
Small business job vacancies were again down in all four UK nations in August, as they were in July, with Wales seeing the fastest rate of decline:
Wales: down by 1.83% to 5,400 vacancies — 100 fewer than in July.
Scotland: down by 1.81% to 9,500 vacancies — 200 fewer than in July.
England: down by 1.40% to 137,500 vacancies — 1,900 fewer than in July.
Northern Ireland: down by 1.22% to 2,300 vacancies — 100 fewer than in July.
Ufuk Akcigit, the Arnold C. Harberger professor of economics at the University of Chicago, said: “The negative economic outlook, albeit with some signs of improvement, is reflected in the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index. In August, job vacancies in firms with 1-9 employees contracted by 1.31%, indicating a milder contraction compared to previous months since the index’s launch in March 2023. That said, there were several categories that were still hit hard, such as the transport and storage sector where job vacancies contracted by 2.31% largely due to rising costs. This is noted in the Consumer Price Index where the ‘transportation’ category experienced its largest price increase from June to July due to rising petrol prices.
“Similarly, the finance and insurance sector has been struggling, with mortgage rates and borrowing costs at 15-year highs. These firms have faced shrinking profit margins due to increasing financing costs and decreasing loan demand. Consequently, the financial and insurance activities sector saw the second-largest contraction, with a 2.22% decrease in vacancies among small businesses in July 2023 compared to June 2023.
“Vacancies among small businesses contracted across all four nations in the United Kingdom, with Wales experiencing the sharpest decline of 1.83%, according to the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index. An August 2023 Labour Market Report by the Office for National Statistics revealed that for the three months ending in June 2023, Wales was the only region with fewer total hours worked compared to the previous year, indicating a weakening business activity in the region. Furthermore, Wales also had the highest unemployment rate among the regions, at 4.8%, suggesting that the sluggish business activity is not solely due to labour shortages but is primarily a result of slow business growth.”
