Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffiths (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Fact check: Vacancy numbers are at a five-year low
By August Graham, Press Association10:26 - September 18, 2026
Answering questions after his first speech as shadow chancellor on Thursday, Andrew Griffith said “vacancies are at a record low”.
Evaluation
The claim does not match the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. These show that job vacancy numbers were lower during the pandemic than they are today.
Excluding the pandemic the number of vacancies was also lower for for more than a decade in the early 2000s than it is today.
The facts
Mr Griffith’s comments came two days after the latest ONS data was released. This showed that vacancies fell from 710,000 in the three months to May 2026 to 702,000 in the three months to August.
This was the lowest reading since the pandemic. Vacancies fell from 788,000 in the three months to March 2020 to 635,000 a month later as lockdowns hit. It did not climb back above 700,000 for over a year when it reached 771,000 in the three months to May 2021.
If excluding the 13 readings in 2020 and 2021 when vacancies were lower than today you have to go back to 2014 to find a time they were below 702,000.
The ONS data only go back to the three months to June 2001. At that point the number of vacancies was 680,000, so lower than today. It remained below the current level for the entire period until the three months to November 2014 when it reached 703,000.
None of this accounts for population sizes. The number of people is higher today than it was in the early 2000s.
Links
ONS – Vacancies and jobs in the UK: September 2026 (archived)
ONS – VACS01: Vacancies and unemployment (archived page and spreadsheet)
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