Nursing is most advertised job in Bucks '“ and sales skills are also in high demand

There were 5,423 advertised job openings in the county in February, up from 4,597 in February 2015.

There were 251 jobs advertised for nurses, ahead of programmers and software development professionals (248) and other administrative occupations (183).

The most commonly sought specialised skill was sales, demanded in 232 job advertisements, ahead of business management (173), SQL [database management] (162), technical support (152), JavaScript [computer programming] (152) and mathematics (151).

Communications skills (1,275), Microsoft Excel (435), customer service (390), planning (378) and writing (371) were the most sought ‘baseline’ skills.

Buckinghamshire’s claimant count has fallen by more than a quarter over the last year, falling faster than the national rate for the first time since March 2015.

It now stands at 2,285 or 1% of the county’s working-age population.

In Aylesbury Vale there are 666 claimants, equivalent to 0.6% of the working-age population.

There were 305 Buckinghamshire residents (including 95 in Aylesbury Vale) aged 18-24 in receipt of Job Seekers’ Allowance in February, the lowest level recorded since comparable records began in 2006, having fallen 92.6 per cent since September 2009’s peak of 2,020.

Only parts of Wycombe have unemployment rates above the national average, according to data compiled by Bucks Business First.