OnTheMarket.com has posted strong profits for the first half of the year.

Revenues jumped 46% to £14.9m, whilst adjusted operating profit surged 163% to £2.1m. Traffic to the website jumped by 36%.

Jason Tebb, CEO of OnTheMarket, commented on the “strong financial performance, operational growth and real progress with our strategic objective of building a differentiated, tech-enabled property business.”

Shares in the group are down 20% this year to date, however, the group has increased its full-year revenue forecast and said it is expected to be “substantially ahead of expectations”.

Uk unemployment has fallen to 4.5% in the three months to August. 

New figures from the Office for National Statistics found unemployment to fall from 4.6%. Payroll figures surged to 29.2 million, which is back to pre-pandemic levels.

Vacancies over the previous quarter hit record highs of 1.2 million. The number of vacancies soared highest in transport and storage.

Commenting on UK unemployment falling to 4.5%, Ian Warwick, who is the managing partner at Deepbridge Capital, said: “Today’s unemployment data shows the resilience of the UK economy as economic stimulus measures taper off.”

“With economic stability and growth still at the forefront of the agenda it is therefore more important than ever that scale-up businesses, particularly in high-growth sectors such as digital technologies and life sciences are supported. They will be at the very heart of economic growth as we create an economy fit for the twenty-first century.”

“Government initiatives such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme have never been more important for helping entrepreneurs and innovators source the funding they require, whilst also offering private investors with tax incentives to develop UK-supporting private equity portfolios. With our EIS funds reaching record levels of funding in 2020/21 it is evident that there is considerable demand from investors and financial advisers alike to invest in early-stage UK companies which we believe will be at the forefront of our economic recovery.”

ASOS shares (LON:ASC) sank on Monday after the online retailer said it expected profits to decline and their CEO, Nick Beighton, was stepping down with immediate effect.

ASOS shares were down over 10% in early trade before rebounding.

Following a strong year aided by lockdowns and lower returns rates, ASOS said the next year would be fraught with supply chain issues leading to the group revising down their pre-tax profit to £110m-£140m, well below consensus of £193m.

“ASOS has enjoyed a huge boost to trading over lockdowns, albeit for less-lucrative casual wear as its core demographic was stuck at home. A reluctance to leave the house meant return rates were lower, resulting in XL margins. However, the tailwinds are easing and the ASOS bubble has burst,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

ASOS follows Boohoo in the release of a sobering update that pointed to a less than sparkling fast fashion industry.

“The market had a sense that life has been a bit of struggle for ASOS, given the gloomy update from rival Boohoo in recent days which seemed to confirm that the fast fashion industry was not enjoying the best of times,” says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“The scale of the problems at ASOS appear to have been underestimated but the company parting ways with its chief executive is less of a surprise. Nick Beighton has been struggling to steer the ship through problems that go back quite a few years.”

“The near-term outlook is somewhat bleak for ASOS. Sales growth is expected to slow quite dramatically; cost pressures and supply chain problems could remain intact for a while, which means profit margins will be squeezed; and consumer uncertainty could result in volatile trading patterns.”

“ASOS is guiding for pre-tax profit in the year of £110 million to £140 million, which is 35% below the market consensus forecast of £193 million if you take the mid-point of the profit range.”

Royal Mail has announced plans to hire 20,000 seasonal workers from late October through to early January.

Companies including Amazon, John Lewis and Morrisons are also carrying out a huge drive in temporary employment over the Christmas season.

Of the new roles, 17,150 will be in the mail centre sorting.

“Being part of delivering Christmas is a brilliant experience and one that we know offers lots of opportunities for employment and engagement in the communities we serve,” said the group’s chief executive, Zareena Brown.

New figures have found that demand for staff is reaching high rates, whilst employee availability is near record lows.

“The sharp rise in hiring activity is a reason to be hopeful, but competition is fierce,” said Claire Warnes, who is the head of education, skills and productivity at KPMG UK.

“The end of the furlough scheme should be bringing tens of thousands of new people to the jobs market, but many do not have the right skills to transfer to the sectors with most demand.”

Commenting on Royal Mail’s plans, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould, said: “On a day when Royal Mail launched a drive to take on 20,000 Christmas workers in the UK the group also signalled its ambitions closer to Santa Claus’ neck of the woods with a sizeable acquisition in Canada.

“The deal to pick up freight carrier Rosenau looks to fill in the gaps in its Canadian business and should help with realising growth ambitions for its GLS international logistics arm.”

“Arguably this is the part of the group with the most potential and it is not faced with the same level of structural issues as its UK-based business.”