There are far fewer people looking for jobs than jobs available.

While this is well-known from both the official unemployment statistics and anecdotally, it’s also borne out by one recruitment firm.

Jon Morley, managing director of Douglas-based Bespoke Recruitment and Human Resources, said: ‘Our permanent placement figures are up by 38%, and our temporary/contract division is also up 33%.’

The most recent government official unemployment figures put the total at 286, or 0.6% of the working population.

But there were 681 jobs available at the Job Centre at the time of the report.

One of the big problems we face is a skills gap.

When we’re looking for surgeons, for example, we’re unlikely to find one among the 286 out of work.

Indeed, the sector looking for most staff is the health medical services, where there were 130 vacancies.

The next is catering and entertainment, where there were 112 vacancies.

For a clearer picture of the situation it is interesting to see how long the claimants have been out of work.

There were 95 for less than a month and 96 between three months and one month.

Only two had been out of work for more than four years.

‘The market is tight but genuinely buoyant and we have seen an increase in candidates registering online – this 24/7 flexible approach in a time tight world has proved to be beneficial,’ Mr Morley said.

‘We have been developing relationships with employers of choice for 18 years and having an in-depth understating of what our clients require has enabled us to deliver above and beyond expectations.

‘The issues we face is that we have hundreds of jobs available at all levels, and not enough job seekers – this is the same for everyone.

‘This has put an emphasis on employers using agencies like ours to attract top talent. We have also been helping clients concentrate on talent retention, workforce planning, employee relations and organisational development.

So what long-term effects has Covid had?

Mr Morley, whose company has been operating since 2006, said: ‘The Covid hangover exists, resulting in clients offering flexible/hybrid working arrangements. Job seekers requests have also changed with pensions and health insurance being in big demand as well as the usual pay rise/promotion/study support requests.

‘However, wellbeing and culture are both at the top of the list these days – for both employers and job seekers.’

Since January 2021, when the number out work was 1,034 there has been a steady decline, although the last few months have been similar figures.

Since the turn of the century, the highest number of people out of work was 1,182. That was in January 2014.

It’s a far cry from the swings we saw in the days when we were a big tourism destination. There might have been lots of jobs in the summer but the government had to introduce winter works schemes when there was little tourism and thousands were thrown out of work.

Not one of the people in the most-recent unemployment figures needed a work permit.

The figures we have used here are the official claimant count.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

The International Labour Organisation measure shows a 731 out of work.

That includes not only those who are registered as unemployed, such as claiming jobseeker’s allowance, but also those who are not registered but may still be looking for work.

Historically, the island has only published the International Labour Organisation definition of unemployment when census results have been made available. This report uses analysis of the ILO unemployment rate and the claimant count rate to generate an estimate of number of individuals that may be unemployed and actively seeking work but not registered as doing so.

In February 2022, the economically active population used in the calculation of the unemployment rate was updated to 44,875 to bring in line with the 2021 Isle of Man Census.

The previous figure, based on the 2016 Census, was 42,777.