Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG Report on Jobs, published on 8 July; in particular, the finding that the availability of workers to fill vacancies fell at the quickest rates on record; and what steps they intend to take as a result.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) monitors a wide range of statistics and surveys on the labour market.

We want everyone to be able to find a job, progress in work and thrive in the labour market, whoever they are and wherever they live. Through Plan for Jobs, the government announced over £33 billion in measures to create, support and protect jobs, which includes £2.9 billion funding for Restart and £3 billion investment in the Kickstart programme alongside other measures focussed on boosting work search, skills and apprenticeships.

Alongside measures in Plan for Jobs, DWP is leading cross-government collaboration to identify and remove barriers to working in sectors with immediate or growing demand for jobs. We continue to work closely with these departments and sector bodies to identify and address barriers facing DWP customers and to ensure the provision is available to support individuals to access opportunities in these sectors. We work closely with a range of departments to shape skills support to enable individuals to develop the skills needed in order to move to roles in different sectors