The highest level of new travel job vacancies in 12 months was recorded in March, according to new data.
The number of new travel jobs being created more than doubled in the month – a year on from the first Covid-19 lockdown.
The volume of new travel vacancies has now increased for five months in a row, latest figures from C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment reveal.
However, the number of new travel vacancies remained 74% down compared with March 2019, indicating that the industry still has a “significant way to go” before fully recovering, C&M pointed out.
The March figure was also down 18% compared with the same month last year, which was far below the average year-on-year fall of 91% from the past 12 months.
“However, it should be noted that the end of March 2020 was severely impacted by the onset of the virus,” C&M said.
Candidate numbers held relatively steady in March with a two per cent dip from February. The total was 25% below the figure seen last March; however, this was the third-smallest year-on-year fall since the pandemic began.
More candidates were placed in new travel jobs last month than at any point since the start of the pandemic. The total topped the previous high from last October and nearly trebled the number from February.
C&M director Barbara Kolosinska said: “The short-term outlook for the UK’s travel industry remains unclear. However, we have now had five consecutive months of increasing travel vacancies which indicates that things are gradually picking up, forward bookings are being made, and travel companies are now looking to take on new talent to cope with the increased demand.
“Activity levels remain well down on what we were used to seeing before the pandemic began, but recent weeks have been very encouraging, with April also starting strongly.”