UK employers add record number of jobs despite Omicron spread

Recruit 184,000 staff to payrolls in December, showing little impact of Omicron

British employers added a record 184,000 staff to their payrolls in December, showing little impact from the Omicron variant of coronavirus, while job vacancies hit a new record high, potentially fuelling the Bank of England's inflation worries.

The broader unemployment rate for the three months to the end of November fell to 4.1%, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday, below economists' forecasts in a Reuters poll for it to hold at 4.2% and its lowest since June 2020. “Today’s figures are proof that the jobs market is thriving, with employee numbers rising to record levels, and redundancy notifications at