Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 11 May 2023

• The total number of online job adverts fell by 1% on 5 May 2023 compared with the previous week and was 18% lower than the equivalent period of 2022, with 11 of the 12 UK countries and English regions and 24 of the 28 job categories showing a decrease in the number of online job adverts compared with a year ago (Adzuna).

• The number of daily ship visits increased by 5% in the week to 7 May 2023 rising from 218 to 228 visits, while they were 26% lower compared with the equivalent period in 2022 (309 visits); cargo and tanker ships fell by 7% in the week to 7 May 2023 and were 18% lower compared with the equivalent period in 2022 (exactEarth).

• Consumer behaviour indicators have shown mixed levels of activity in the latest week, with aggregate debit and credit card purchases increasing by 11 percentage points (Bank of England CHAPS data), while retail footfall fell to 98% of the level of activity seen in the previous week (Springboard); both were at a higher level when compared with the equivalent period in 2022.

• In the week to 7 May 2023, the System Average Price (SAP) of gas fell by 8% when compared with the previous week, and was 25% lower than the equivalent period last year and 82% lower than the peak seen in August 2022; the SAP of gas remains 257% higher than the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) baseline of February 2020 (National Gas Transmission).

Notes:

1. Users should note that card spending over time is pushed upwards by the impacts of both inflation on value of transactions and cash-to-card conversion.

2. The gaps in the shipping timeline data are caused by technical issues.

This section lists a selection of the data available in this publication. For the full list of available datasets, please see our accompanying dataset page.

Real-time indicator

A real-time indicator provides insights into economic activity using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys or Experimental Statistics, which represent useful economic and social concepts.

Information on the methodology used to produce the indicators in this bulletin is available in our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology.

These statistics have been produced to provide timely indicators of the effect of developing world events on the UK economy and society, using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys, or Experimental Statistics.

The data presented in this bulletin are reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis. Indicators are swapped in and out of the publication based on their suitability and availability.

UK coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions

Coronavirus restrictions should be considered when interpreting the data featured throughout this bulletin.

Seasonality

Seasonal fluctuations are likely to be present in many of these indicators, so caution must be applied when interpreting changes in series that are not seasonally adjusted.