What's going on?

Data out on Tuesday showed UK job vacancies have hit record highs, so the country�s bosses had better action some blue-sky thinking before COP to manage these optics.

What does this mean?

It looks like British companies are quite done slacking off, as job openings top one million for the first time and the unemployment rate ticks down to 4.6%. In other words, there are fewer people looking for work and more than enough jobs for them to apply for � a sharp turnaround from this time last year.

Of course, �more than enough� jobs could be a problem in itself, with companies now likely to find filling them more of a struggle. But that shouldn�t exactly come as a surprise: this year has seen the biggest drop in the number of Brits either in work or looking for it since the early 1990s. And while the pandemic hasn�t helped, Brexit � which has made it harder to bring in workers from outside the UK � should probably hold its hands up and say �My bad� for this one.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Britain takes back control.

The Brexit effect is making life difficult in other ways too: it�s adding fuel to the fire that is the world�s struggling supply chain, which might be why the UK government has just delayed introducing new checks on products imported from the European Union (EU) until 2022. No such luck for Britain�s exporters, though, which still have to fill out piles of paperwork to meet the EU�s own stringent checks.

For you personally: Now, about that raise��

All these scrambles for staff probably mean one thing: companies will offer higher and higher wages to attract someone qualified, enthusiastic, or � heck, even having a pulse will probably do at this stage (tweet this). So if that�s you, it just might be worth turning on those LinkedIn notifications…