Saqib Bhatti on job vacancies, 20 October 2026: does not hold up

The claim

Just as we were having this debate, I saw a headline saying job vacancies are at their lowest in 12 years.

Saqib Bhatti, 20 October 2026, House of Commons, Manufacturing Skills. Source

The result: It does not hold up

The official figures do not support this claim. It was tested on one point and fails it. Every figure below is the ONS's own, read from its data, with an archived copy listed under Receipts.

Point by point

• Point 1, the record: does not hold up. The claim says “are at their lowest in 12 years”. But the ONS job vacancies (thousands) was as low or lower in the three months to April 2021 (660thousand^src) than in the three months to September 2026 (691thousand^src), so it is not the lowest since 2014.

The latest official figure

• The Office for National Statistics reports the UK job vacancies (thousands): 691thousand^src

This figure updates automatically when the ONS publishes a new one. The figures in the points above stay pinned to the period they cover, and any ONS revision to them is shown on this page with its date.

How this check works

• Why this claim: it was chosen automatically as the day's fact check from 4 claims stating a current national figure in official announcements and Parliament between 8 October 2026 and 7 November 2026. Claims the official figures contradict come first, the furthest off first; when every claim holds up, the boldest one is checked.
• The figure: a claim passes if it matches any of the ONS's last 4 readings published before it was made (or the month it names), within the rounding it uses. "3.8%" must be between 3.75% and 3.85%; "4%" between 3.5% and 4.5%; "more than", "nearly" and "about" are read as written.
• The trend: "risen" or "fallen" is tested against the reading before; for a growth rate, "grew" means growth above zero.
• The record: "highest since 2023" passes if no reading after 2023 was as high; "a record" passes if no earlier reading was.
• The change: "up 276,000 in two years" is tested on the ONS readings that far apart, ending at any of its last four readings before the claim; "since the election" starts from the ONS periods covering 4 July 2024.
• What is skipped: forecasts, targets, plans, questions, and figures for a region, a group of people or a past year, because the latest national figure can't speak to them.

To dispute a point, send a correction request with an official source. A confirmed error is corrected on this page with a dated note.