The number of job vacancies in the county is still far outstripping the number of people seeking work.
A total of 19,000 job vacancies were available in Staffordshire in March – compared to 15,175 Universal credit claimants.
However, in Stoke-on-Trent, the number of vacancies stood at 8,200, which is now below the number of work-related benefit claimants (9,020).
The figures compiled by Staffordshire County Council’s Skills and Employability Team also show that the overall number of vacancies had dropped by 2 per cent between February and March.
But the number of Universal Credit claimants is now 30 per cent – or 3,665 – higher than the level seen in March 2020 (pre-CoVID).
Demand for social care roles continues to remain high with Care Workers and Home Carers being the highest in demand occupations in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.
Occupations relating to administration, sales, nursing and customer service continue to experience strong demand and in the hospitality sector, kitchen and catering assistants remain the roles most in demand.
There is also high demand for roles crucial to the logistics, teaching, manufacturing and healthcare sectors.
Bookkeepers, payroll managers, wage clerks, programmers and software develops are also highly sought after.
The reported stated: “It is clear there continues to be an extremely high number of jobs available in the local economy and the need now is to ensure that there is a strong local labour pool with skilled workers able to fill these roles to support business recovery and survival as well as improve prosperity through better pay.”
