30 cities have more vacancies than jobseekers

Vacancies have outnumbered jobseekers in more than 30 UK cities - suggesting a shortage of skilled staff, according to a new report.

Jobs site Adzuna said the number of advertised vacancies passed a million in April, up by 25% on a year ago, as unemployment continued to fall.

There were more vacancies in April than people looking for a job in 32 out of 50 cities, research found.

The best places to find jobs included Guildford, Cambridge and Reading - while competition for work was strongest in Sunderland, Hull and Bradford, said the report.

Adzuna added that advertised salaries were 0.5% lower than six months ago.

Andrew Hunter of Adzuna said: "The number of jobseekers is falling while advertised vacancies are ballooning. This could be a warning sign that our workforce lacks the skills necessary to fill up many of the new jobs appearing.

"The recovery certainly has the capacity to progress further and faster, but at the moment there's a disconnect between our abilities and our economic climate.

"If we're going to get behind the wheel of this recovery, we need to unlock the potential of our workforce - with more emphasis on the diversity of available jobs if only people are aware of them and willing to train themselves."