I received a press release this week based on the Office for National Statistics' report, 'Vacancies and jobs in the UK: June 2022'. It described the record high of 1.3 million job vacancies over the past three months, noting that many sectors are suffering from staff shortages. Claims.co.uk had analysed the current listings on job search website ‘Indeed’ to see which industries are most in need of workers. Its findings, which are in the table here, have been covered in a number of publications – none of which seem to have looked beyond what they’ve been given and found the ‘glue’ which sticks all these industries together: the cleaners! 

I wonder how many cleaning vacancies are hidden amongst the data? 

Without good cleaning practices in place, none of these industries would be able to function properly, would they? It’s so frustrating, since despite the efforts our industry has made in recent years to get Government to recognise the crucial role cleaning staff play in keeping all our other industries going, nothing seems to have changed. And until Government recognises, as a separate entity, the £58.9bn cleaning, hygiene & waste sector - one of the 10 biggest industries in the UK, none of this ONS data makes any sense and thus we can’t properly address the issues we face in recruiting the thousands of cleaners we so badly need, so we can keep everything functioning and shore up our economy, can we? 

 

Is this the same in other countries, I wonder?