FOI REF: FOI/2023/4887
You asked
I am conducting a study of information for my local NHS trust as part of a workforce development program and am wondering if you would be able to provide information to assist.
I require specific data which shows nationally (UK) how many vacancies there are currently for Midwives – looking at years 2022-23 if possible, or the most up to date available.
The data available on the ONS website shows Nursing vacancies included in the overall figure and it is specifically only the Midwifery vacancies that I require.
We said
Thank you for your query regarding vacancies for midwives from 2022 to 2023.
The ONS Vacancy Survey collects information on the total number of vacancies being advertised by organisations within the UK and is published monthly in spreadsheet VACS02 as part of our labour market release. However, this information is not supplied by occupation. Consequently, it is not possible to provide information on the number of vacancies for midwives.
You may be interested in our published estimates of online job adverts data. Please note, these estimates are not official estimates of vacancies, but can be used as a proxy measure of changing labour demand (although changes in volume over time can also reflect a change in recruitment practices). The profession categories used in our estimates of job adverts do not align with the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC), though they do represent all types of jobs. Official sources of vacancies continue to be our vacancy survey.
Table 18 of the Labour Demand Volumes by Profession and Local Authority in the UK publication provides estimates for how many adverts were open on average at any point, on any day across a given month. For December 2022, there were 1355 midwife online job adverts across the UK, to the nearest 5 adverts. The time series for demand of Midwife adverts back to January 2017 can be found on row 2025 of that table. Midwife adverts are within the 'Specialised Nurses' detailed profession category, which are in the 'Healthcare' summary profession category.
If you would like further information on the estimates of job adverts, please contact us at economic.wellbeing@ons.gov.uk.