Recruitment website Indeed is reporting flat growth from amongst active job seekers for October, with a drop amongst the number of jobless who say they are actively seeking employment.

According to Indeed: The October survey found 27.1% of respondents actively looking for paid employment, down but statistically indistinguishable from 28.7% in September. This share is up from its June level of 24.4%.

The drop in the percentage of the jobless was more noticeable, declining 3.8% from September to October. This number may reflect sentiment from from jobless job seekers who's spouses have found employment and now feel less pressure to seek work as the school year continues amidst a potential winter surge of covid cased due to colder weather and failures to achieve safe vaccination levels in some regions of the US and elsewhere. In addition, job seekers continue to voice frustration with overly long application and interview processes, and failures of employers to meet their needs.

Related: Job Search Numbers Stay Stagnant as Job Openings Remain at Record Levels

In addition, Reuters is reporting that in the UK, the end of the furlough, is having no impact on job seekers returning in numbers. While many UK business leaders as well as politicians had hoped the end of furlough would show a different result, those hopes seem to have been dashed.

“The fact that urgent job search hasn’t shot up suggests that the hopes many people had on the employers’ side that the end of furlough would flood the labour market with candidates is probably not going to materialise,” Indeed economist Pawel Adrjan said.

Key Points

• Active job search didn’t shift significantly from the previous month according to the October 2021 edition of the Indeed Job Search Survey.
• However, the share of jobless respondents who are actively searching for paid work did decline over the month, dropping 3.8 percentage points.
• The reasons for a lack of urgency among the unemployed remained varied, with the top reasons in October being care responsibilities, COVID fears, and employed partners.

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