Jobs Fair to be held in Peterborough as employers struggle to fill vacancies

​Employers in most types of businesses in Peterborough are facing an ongoing challenge to fill jobs vacancies, according to Jobcentre bosses.

​Career openings are available in a range of sectors from engineering to retail and health as companies battle to find the staff they need in order to meet customer demand.

Difficulties finding enough people to take up available jobs in the city has been a continuing issue for many employers for some time.

Now a Jobs Fair is to be held in Peterborough early next year in a bid to help fill the variety of vacancies at city employers.

Hundreds of vacancies are expected to be available for job seekers who attend the event.

Stephen Lankester, District Operations Leader said: “Looking to the new year we have vacancies in virtually every sector, whether that’s hospitality or health care."

The Jobs Fair will be held at the Peterborough Jobcentre in Bridge Street towards the end of January with a date still to be announced.

Mr Lankester said: "There are still 601 vacancies in Peterborough on our hwww.gov.uk/find-a-job website and more than 13,000 across the county.

He added: “Going forward we’ll be looking to expand our services to helping more people into fulfilling employment.

“Importantly, job seeking parents on Universal Credit can get extra financial help through increased childcare payments.”

Figures released by the Department of Work and Pensions show that last November there were 8,165 Universal Credit claimants in Peterborough – up 18 per cent on the same month, or 1,225 people, in 2023 when the figure stood at 6,940 claimants.

Mr Lankester added: “Last year was a busy, positive year at our jobcentre with everyone working hard to help jobseekers and employers.

"We’ve built new partnerships with businesses, some recruiting in our office, and a great example of this is McDonalds and Solidus.

"We’ve also held several in person jobs fairs, which have all proved very successful.”

In the East of England there are currently 113,000 people who are unemployed – down 14,000 on the year. The unemployment rate is 3.3 per cent of the working age population.