The job market in Britain has been sluggish amid a silent economic recession and rising costs of living. Migrants from different countries including newly arrived Bangladeshis are running every day in search of work. Various hotels, accommodation sector, restaurants are closing down. Old workers are becoming unemployed. But they can't find a new job. Big companies are laying off workers. For the work which used to keep three workers, now there are not more than two workers. The downsizing that started after the corona has not stopped across Britain. Pay growth, excluding bonuses, fell sharply from 7.3% to 6.6% in the three months to November. There are also signs the jobs market is stalling, with the number of vacancies dropping for the 18th time in a row. Retailers reported the sharpest fall in vacancies despite the sector heading towards the key Christmas trading period. Several big recruitment companies have recently warned that the jobs market was slowing. Page Group, Hays and Robert Walters said confidence was weak among employers, with Page pointing out that the UK was its worst-performing market with profits down by around a fifth. Between October and December, the estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 49,000 to 934,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Five industry sectors fell below pre-Covid levels with the largest drops in vacancies in retail, wholesale, transport, storage and motor trade. But overall job vacancies still remain above levels seen before the Covid pandemic. The softer-than-expected wage growth figures could incentivize the BoE to begin discussions about rate cuts. Wage growth has been a bugbear for the BoE. Strong wage growth fueled consumer spending and demand-driven inflation, forcing the BoE to keep a more hawkish rate path. AI roles represent nearly one-third (27%) of all advertisements on the UK job market, according to new research from Thomson Reuters. Out of 6,073 roles promoted online in January 2024, Thomson Reuters recorded AI skills as a fundamental requirement in 1,652 of them. The firm said the rapid surge in job ads requiring AI skills shows the sharpened industry focus on technology and continued efforts to poach relevant staff. “Demand for AI skills across professions is accelerating at a remarkable pace”, said Mary Alice Vuicic, Thomson Reuters’ head of HR and communications. “AI-focused jobs requirements have gone from being quite limited to being over a quarter of all new IT roles in a very short time”, she added. A recent study from AWS and Access Partnership earlier this month found that some employers were willing to pay a premium of up to 31% for IT workers with AI skills, highlighting the competitive demand for this new workforce. While 31% was the asking price for AI skills in the IT department, businesses are also willing to fork out in other areas.