This data package includes the underlying data to replicate the charts, tables, and calculations presented in Labor market tightness and inflation before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, PIIE Working Paper 24-23.

If you use the data, please cite as:

Bloesch, Justin. 2024. Labor market tightness and inflation before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. PIIE Working Paper 24-23. Washington: Peterson Institute for International Economics.

In this project, rich administrative data on search and recruitment from a low-wage online job portal are used to study the labor market impacts of COVID-19 in India. The data from the job portal includes information on vacancies and job seekers across 2019 and 2020. It covers all users that either posted a vacancy or applied to a job on the portal across the two years. The following datasets are available: Aggregate data State level data Each dataset reports the following details: Vacancies: Number of vacancies; number of full-time vacancies; average minimum salary for full-time vacancies; number of full-time vacancies above minimum salary offer of Rs. 15,000; average minimum experience for full-time vacancies Job seekers: Number of job seekers; Number of job seekers by gender, age and education

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate in Salt Lake City, UT (MSA) (SALT649UR) from Jan 1990 to Dec 2024 about Salt Lake City, UT, unemployment, rate, and USA.

This dataset provides values for LABOR MARKET CONDITIONS INDEX reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

figures regarding tightness in the labor market

Unemployment Rate in the United States remained unchanged at 4.20 percent in May. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

This table provides information about labor supply and demand conditions in occupational labor markets in North Carolina’s eight regions (“Prosperity Zones”) and the statewide total.

A “Career Cluster” is a broad group of occupations. Each Career Cluster contains occupations that require similar knowledge and skills. A “Career Pathway” is a specific group of occupations falling under a broader “Career Cluster”. Specific occupations falling within a given Career Cluster, Career Pathway, and education level can be found on the Star Jobs table.

These data can be used to compare occupational labor markets within a given region. A low supply/demand rate indicates a “tight” labor market—with few jobseekers per job opening—while a high supply/demand rate indicates a “slack” labor market. A tight labor market presents opportunities for jobseekers, but can lead to challenges for employers looking to hire.

These data can also be used to assess the alignment between the labor market and our state’s talent pipeline. “Labor needed” is the amount of additional labor supply needed to attain the statewide or regional supply/demand rate. “Completers” is the average number of individuals completing higher education programs at the University of North Carolina system or the North Carolina Community College System.

Data are updated on an annual basis to accommodate methodology improvements and revisions to the underlying data inputs.

Technical details about methodology can be found here.

Data sources:

Labor supply: LEAD analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey, 2014-2016 average)

Labor demand: LEAD analysis of data from the Conference Board^© and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014-2016 average)

Completers: LEAD analysis of data from the N.C. Common Follow-up System (2010-2015 average)

We extend time-series models that have so far been used to study price inflation (Stock and Watson 2016) and apply them to a micro-level data set containing worker-level information on hourly wages. We construct a measure of aggregate nominal wage growth that (i) filters out noise and very transitory movements, (ii) quantifies the importance of idiosyncratic factors for aggregate wage dynamics, and (iii) strongly co-moves with labor market tightness, unlike existing indicators of wage inflation. We show that our measure is a reliable real-time indicator of wage pressures and a good predictor of future wage growth.

Graph and download economic data for Job Openings: Total Nonfarm (JTSJOL) from Dec 2000 to May 2025 about job openings, vacancy, nonfarm, and USA.

Czechia had the highest ratio of available job vacancies to the unemployed population aged 15 years and above, at 1.74 in the second quarter of 2022. To compare, in Slovenia, there were around 0.6 job openings per unemployed worker. A higher ratio of vacancies to unemployed normally indicates a higher level of tightness in the labor market.

In the three months to May 2025, there were approximately 736,000 job vacancies in the UK, the fewest number of job vacancies since April 2021. The number of job vacancies in the United Kingdom reached a record high of 1.3 million in the three months to May 2022, with the number of vacancies steadily falling since then. During the provided time period, the number of job vacancies fell to its lowest levels in the months leading to June 2020, at just 328,000, at the height of COVID-19 restrictions. Tight labor market beginning to loosen After weathering the economic storm of COVID-19, the UK labor market has been reasonably healthy since 2021. The unemployment rate, which reached 5.1 percent in late 2020, declined in the following months, to a post-pandemic low of 3.5 percent by August 2022. Since that point, however, the unemployment rate has crept up, and was 4.4 percent in November 2024. Resignations have also started to decline, after reaching a peak of 442,000 in the second quarter of 2022, there were just 181,000 in the third quarter of 2024. Which industries are experiencing staff shortages? The percentage of businesses reporting a staff shortage in the UK reached 15.7 percent in September 2022, before falling to just 9.7 percent by October 2023, another indication of a loosening labor market. According to data from that month, approximately 1 in 4 UK businesses in the accommodation and food services had a shortage of staff, the highest of any sector, followed by human health and social work at 18.4 percent, and manufacturing at 17.6 percent. Many of the recent struggles of Britain's National Health Service are directly related to staff shortages, with the public seeing a shortage of doctors and nurses, and overworked staff as some of the main problems facing the NHS.

Revenue in the Temporary Employment Agency industry is anticipated to drop at a compound annual rate of 4% in the five years through 2024 to €236.5 billion. The COVID-19 outbreak meant key employers of temporary workers in the hospitality and tourist sector shut their doors, and companies froze hiring due to economic uncertainty - a sizeable blow to revenue in the three years through 2022. Workers on temporary contracts represented a significant chuck of employment losses in all quarters of 2020. According to Eurostat data, temporary employment declined across Europe in the four years from 2017 to 2020, dipping from 13.8% to 11.9%. Since COVID-19 has slowed, companies have resumed hiring as confidence levels have been restored and vacancy levels have soared. An increasingly tight labour market encourages employers to rely on temporary employment placement agencies to fight in an increasingly competitive market. Several countries rank highly in terms of temporary workers with a large short-term job market. In 2022, the Netherlands and Spain have more than 15% of employed people under temporary contracts, according to Eurostat. Industry revenue is expected to shrink by 1.6% in 2024. Revenue is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.5% in the five years through 2029 to €295.4 billion. With the labour market is likely to remain tight in many countries due to skill mismatches, employers will keep turning to placement agencies for their databases to track and identify the right candidates. Companies will lean on temporary hires as the economic outlook remains unclear and inflation keeps squeezing budgets. The automation of more routine jobs will be a threat to some long-standing temporary jobs. Across Europe, countries that traditionally rely on a strong network of short-term workers are implanting policies that may disrupt or expand services. Spain has already introduced reforms that are taking effect to increase permanent positions and remove temporary contracts, while Italy is expanding its voucher scheme to encourage temporary hires.

Labor Force Participation Rate in Argentina increased to 48.80 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 48.30 percent in the third quarter of 2024. This dataset provides - Argentina Labor Force Participation Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

As of October 2024, there were approximately 12.97 million unemployed people in the European Union, of which 10.84 million were in countries in the Euro Area. During the provided time period, unemployment in the EU peaked in April 2013, when it reached 24.3 million people, with the most recent month having the fewest number of unemployed people.

Bureau of Labor Statistics - Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) 2000-2025From the BLS:Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey Overview PageThe Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) is a monthly survey that has been developed to address the need for data on job openings, hires, and separations.PurposeThese data serve as demand-side indicators of labor shortages at the national level. Prior to JOLTS, there was no economic indicator of the unmet demand for labor with which to assess the presence or extent of labor shortages in the United States. The availability of unfilled jobs—the job openings rate—is an important measure of the tightness of job markets, parallel to existing measures of unemployment.ScopeData from a sample of approximately 21,000 U.S. business establishments are collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics through JOLTS Data Collection Centers in Atlanta and Kansas City. The JOLTS survey covers all nonagricultural industries in the public and private sectors for the 50 States and the District of Columbia.Data ElementsJOLTS collects data on Total Employment, Job Openings, Hires, Quits, Layoffs & Discharges, and Other Separations. For more information on the JOLTS data elements, see the JOLTS data definitions page.Reference PeriodsTotal Employment - the pay period that includes the 12th of the month.Job Openings - the last business day of the month.Hires and Separations - the entire calendar month.

Revenue in the Temporary Employment Agency industry is anticipated to drop at a compound annual rate of 4% in the five years through 2024 to €236.5 billion. The COVID-19 outbreak meant key employers of temporary workers in the hospitality and tourist sector shut their doors, and companies froze hiring due to economic uncertainty - a sizeable blow to revenue in the three years through 2022. Workers on temporary contracts represented a significant chuck of employment losses in all quarters of 2020. According to Eurostat data, temporary employment declined across Europe in the four years from 2017 to 2020, dipping from 13.8% to 11.9%. Since COVID-19 has slowed, companies have resumed hiring as confidence levels have been restored and vacancy levels have soared. An increasingly tight labour market encourages employers to rely on temporary employment placement agencies to fight in an increasingly competitive market. Several countries rank highly in terms of temporary workers with a large short-term job market. In 2022, the Netherlands and Spain have more than 15% of employed people under temporary contracts, according to Eurostat. Industry revenue is expected to shrink by 1.6% in 2024. Revenue is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.5% in the five years through 2029 to €295.4 billion. With the labour market is likely to remain tight in many countries due to skill mismatches, employers will keep turning to placement agencies for their databases to track and identify the right candidates. Companies will lean on temporary hires as the economic outlook remains unclear and inflation keeps squeezing budgets. The automation of more routine jobs will be a threat to some long-standing temporary jobs. Across Europe, countries that traditionally rely on a strong network of short-term workers are implanting policies that may disrupt or expand services. Spain has already introduced reforms that are taking effect to increase permanent positions and remove temporary contracts, while Italy is expanding its voucher scheme to encourage temporary hires.

In the first quarter of 2025, approximately 220,000 job resignations took place in the United Kingdom, compared with 271,000 in the previous quarter. The number of resignations in Q2 2022 was the highest number taking place in a single quarter during this provided time period, reaching 446,000. In most years, there is a noticeable trend of resignations peaking in the fourth quarter of the year and being at their lowest in the first quarter. There is also a significant fall in people resigning from their jobs after the 2008 financial crisis and after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The Great Resignation The high number of resignations that took place after COVID-19 hit also occurred in the United States. Throughout 2022, approximately 50 million American workers quit their jobs in a trend dubbed 'The Great Resignation' In both the UK and U.S. the trend corresponded with a very tight labor market. After emerging from the initial COVID-19 lockdowns, UK unemployment declined from 2021 onwards, falling to a low of just 3.6 percent in August 2022. There were also numerous job vacancies, which peaked in May 2024 at 1.3 million, though by the end of 2024, both indicators have returned to more typical levels. Labor market concerns for 2025 One of the main concerns of the UK government regarding the labor market is economic inactivity, in particular the reason for this inactivity, Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people on long-term sick-leave, has increased substantially. At the start of 2020, there were approximately 2.12 million people economically inactive for this reason, with this increasing to almost 2.84 million by the end of 2023, with this declining only slightly to 2.77 million by the end of 2024. It is unclear if there is one overriding factor driving this surge, with possible causes including the prevalence of Long COVID, or the ongoing NHS crisis.

Employment by industry and sex, UK, published quarterly, non-seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey. These are official statistics in development.

Employment placement agencies in Europe’s revenue is anticipated to contract at a compound annual rate of 3.2% over the five years through 2024 to €47.8 billion. The COVID-19 outbreak tanked business confidence and expansion plans because of economic uncertainty after months of global lockdowns, forcing hiring freezes in a tricky time for employment agencies. 2022 marked a resurgence for agencies. According to Eurostat data, employment in the EU reached a record peak of 74.6% in 2022, with unemployment falling month-on-month to 5.9% in August 2023. Companies enjoyed a post-COVID-19 boom in hiring, as the economy reopened and company’s began to look to expand thanks to improved business confidence which kept employment agencies busy. The labour market has proved resilient against the economic background of rising interest rates and high inflation but remains tight with several unfilled vacancies. Vacancies remain well above pre-pandemic levels but have steadily dipped from the sharp rise post-COVID-19 as companies unfroze hiring decisions, indicating a skills mismatch between job seekers and roles that agencies are struggling to negotiate. Several countries attempt to address long-standing labour shortages to ameliorate professional mobility and offer training courses for in-demand skills through agencies. France, for example, is addressing youth unemployment through upskilling training programmes. Public sector hiring in Germany and Spain in health and education also pushes revenue growth for agencies compared to stunted private sector demand. Revenue is expected to slump by 1.3% in 2024 amid job cuts in the technology sector. Revenue is projected to swell at a compound annual rate of 4.3% over the five years through 2029 to reach €58.9 billion. Agencies will continue to target revenue growth by elevating their online presence, specialising their services towards more niche sectors and targeting executives and upper management positions. Technological developments remain a threat to recruiters, with HR AI systems like Paradox able to scan networking platforms such as LinkedIn for candidates. Companies’ in-house HR teams are expanding too. The sustainability sector looks to be a hot property job market to target, but potential shortages in both high and low-skilled occupations driven by employment growth in STEM professions and healthcare will create hurdles in the hiring process in other sectors.

Employment Agencies Market Size And Forecast

Employment Agencies Market size was valued at USD 18.06 Billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 48.53 Billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 13.2 % during the forecast period 2024-2031.

Global Employment Agencies Market Drivers

The Employment Agencies Market is influenced by a variety of market drivers, which can significantly impact its growth and development. Some of the key drivers include:

Labor Market Dynamics: The overall health of the labor market, including employment rates, job vacancies, and talent shortages, drives demand for employment agencies. In tight labor markets, companies may rely more on agencies to fill positions quickly. Economic Conditions: Economic growth usually leads to increased hiring, encouraging businesses to use employment agencies for efficient recruitment processes. Conversely, during economic downturns, agencies may experience reduced demand.

Global Employment Agencies Market Restraints

The Employment Agencies Market, while offering various opportunities, also faces several market restraints that can impact its growth and effectiveness. Here are some of the key constraints:

Regulatory Challenges: Employment agencies must navigate a complex web of regulations, labor laws, and compliance requirements that can vary significantly by region. Noncompliance can lead to legal issues and fines. Economic Fluctuations: Economic downturns can lead to reduced hiring by companies, which directly affects the demand for employment agencies. In times of recession, businesses may rely more on internal hiring processes or cut back on staffing altogether.