8th July 2026
Vacancies can fall, rise, or stay open even while staff numbers are being reduced.
Cuts and vacancies are not opposites and they often happen at the same time.
Why cuts and vacancies coexist in the Highlands
Cuts target cost, not necessarily headcount
Highland Council and NHS Highland must reduce spending, but they don’t always cut posts outright. Instead they use:
vacancy freezes
delayed recruitment
non‑replacement of retirees
reducing hours
merging roles
shifting staff internally
cutting overtime
reducing agency use
This means vacancies still appear, but fewer are filled, and many are left open for long periods.
Cuts often hit services, not job adverts
A department may lose budget, but still advertise critical posts.
For example:
NHS Highland may cut admin or management posts but still advertise nurses.
Highland Council may cut community services but still advertise teachers or social workers.
So vacancies continue even while overall staffing falls.
NHS Highland: Why vacancies stay high even during cuts
NHS Highland is in a structural bind:
They must cut spending
The board faces a multi‑million‑pound deficit and is under Scottish Government pressure to reduce costs.
They cannot cut essential clinical posts
Even during budget crises, NHS Highland must advertise:
nurses
doctors
allied health professionals
care staff
mental‑health workers
These are statutory services.
They cannot simply stop recruiting.
They rely heavily on expensive agency staff
To reduce agency costs, NHS Highland advertises permanent posts — even if they cannot fill them.
This creates the paradox:
vacancies rise while budgets fall.
Rural recruitment is extremely difficult
Many posts stay open for months or years.
This inflates vacancy numbers even when the organisation is trying to shrink.
Highland Council: Why vacancies appear despite staff reductions
Highland Council faces one of the worst financial positions of any Scottish local authority.
Yet vacancies still appear because:
They must legally provide certain services
Even during cuts, they must recruit:
teachers
social workers
child‑protection staff
road maintenance crews
waste‑collection staff
These roles cannot be left unfilled without breaching statutory duties.
They use “natural wastage” to reduce staff
Instead of redundancies, councils often reduce headcount by:
not replacing retirees
not filling non‑essential posts
merging teams
reducing hours
freezing internal promotions
This means some vacancies appear, but many are quietly withdrawn or left unfilled.
Rural recruitment is difficult
Like NHS Highland, the council struggles to fill posts in:
Caithness
Sutherland
Skye
Wester Ross
Vacancies stay open for long periods, even while budgets shrink.
The Highland reality: fewer jobs, but more vacancies
This is the paradox of rural public‑sector employment:
Vacancies ≠ growth
A vacancy is simply an empty post, not a sign of expansion.
Cuts ≠ no vacancies
Cuts often mean more empty posts, not fewer job adverts.
Vacancies can rise while employment falls
If posts are left unfilled, vacancy numbers increase even as staff numbers decline.
Rural recruitment problems inflate vacancy statistics
Hard‑to‑fill posts stay advertised for months, making vacancy numbers look high even during austerity.
How this fits into the wider Highland labour market
Public sector is the biggest employer in the Highlands
So any slowdown or freeze has a major impact on youth employment, household stability, and local spending.
Cuts reduce job security
Even if vacancies exist, staff fear restructuring, mergers, and service reductions.
Vacancies become “ghost posts”
Many advertised roles are not actively being recruited — they exist on paper but are not being filled.
Private‑sector vacancies fall at the same time
Retail, hospitality, tourism, and small business vacancies are already dropping.
This creates a tightening labour market even though vacancy numbers appear high.
The Strange Result
Highland Council and NHS Highland are under pressure to cut costs, but they still advertise vacancies because:
essential services must be staffed
rural recruitment is difficult
many posts remain unfilled
vacancy freezes target non‑essential roles
cuts often reduce hours, not posts
some vacancies are “ghost posts” that will never be filled
So the public sees job adverts, but the workforce sees cuts.
Both are happening at the same time.