UK Job Market Report

30 May 2026

Dumfries & Galloway

Adzuna has the most complete index of UK job vacancies covering all regions in the UK, based on every job vacancy advertised online in the UK from over 1,000 sources. This data is then normalised, de-duplicated, mix-adjusted and outliers are removed in real time to give an accurate, complete, up to the minute view of the job market. Our UK Job Market Report tracks advertised vacancies, average advertised salaries, competition for jobs, trending roles, time to fill positions, and more.

We also supply real-time data to the Number 10 Dashboard, the Cabinet Office and the Office for National Statistics’ labour market indices. For more granular data breakdowns at a local authority level, job title, or skill level, please contact our labour market intelligence division, Adzuna Intelligence.

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Vacancies

UK job vacancies rose for a fourth consecutive month in May, climbing +2.85% to 799,737. The sustained run of growth – the first since the downturn began in mid-2025 – has narrowed the annual decline from -16.1% in January to just -6.84% in May, the smallest gap recorded since vacancies began falling.

Yet the recovery remains narrow. Just four sectors – Domestic Help & Cleaning, Travel, Teaching and Trade & Construction – posted genuine annual vacancy growth in May. Healthcare & Nursing, Hospitality & Catering and Logistics & Warehouse are all still contracting sharply year-on-year.

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Salaries

Salary growth showed its first signs of cooling in May. The average advertised salary edged down -0.22% month-on-month to £43,998, though it remains +3.76% higher than a year ago. Annual growth stays comfortably ahead of inflation, but the slowdown since May 2025’s peak of +9.38% continues.

London’s average advertised salary climbed further past £50,000, reaching £51,319 – up +5.42% annually. IT remains the highest-paid sector nationally, with average salaries of £66,477, up +14.5% annually, the strongest growth of any sector. Only 1 sector saw an annual salary decline: Maintenance (-4.8%).

Salary transparency showed no improvement in May, with just 40.96% of UK job ads including pay details – unchanged from April, and down from 43.50% a year ago. More than half of all UK job ads (59.04%) are advertised without salary information, continuing a broadly downward trend that stretches back to 2016.

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Time to fill

The average time to fill a role fell to 35.4 days, from 39.5 days previously. Admin roles continue to fill fastest at 32.0 days, followed by Legal (32.4 days) and Maintenance (33.2 days). Graduate roles remained the slowest to fill at 40.8 days, alongside Energy, Oil & Gas (39.2 days) and IT (38.2 days).

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Competition

Competition for roles eased further in May. The number of jobseekers per vacancy fell to 2.14, down from 2.22 in April, continuing a gradual easing as vacancies have recovered. ONS data shows estimated vacancies fell by 19,000 (2.6%) to 707,000 in March to May 2026, compared with the previous quarter – the lowest level since February to April 2021. There were 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy in February to April 2026, up from 2.2 a year earlier.

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UK regions

London’s average advertised salary climbed further past £50,000, reaching £51,319 in May. Wales posted the strongest annual salary growth at +7.87%, continuing its long run of above-average wage increases, followed by North East England (+6.93%). South East England was an outlier, with salaries essentially flat year-on-year (+0.01%).

On vacancies, most regions saw monthly increases in May, with London and South East England leading the recovery. South East England was the only region to see notable monthly salary stagnation, but no region recorded an annual vacancy decline of the scale seen earlier this year..

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The North East remains the toughest region for job seekers, with 3.49 jobseekers per vacancy – the highest in the UK. Wales (3.32) and the West Midlands (3.31) follow closely. The South West and South East offer the most favourable conditions for candidates, virtually tied at 1.44 jobseekers per vacancy, ahead of Eastern England (1.75).

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UK sectors

Teaching remains the largest sector on Adzuna by a wide margin, with 217,275 vacancies in May — up +28.5% year-on-year, even as the month-on-month figure dipped slightly (-1.6%). Trade & Construction also continues to expand, up +26.6% annually. Domestic Help & Cleaning remains the standout story in the wider market, with vacancies up 382% year-on-year and rising a further +27.7% month-on-month, continuing a surge that began in late 2025.

At the other end of the spectrum, Healthcare & Nursing (-33.3% annually), Hospitality & Catering (-32.2%) and Logistics & Warehouse (-31.8%) remain three of the hardest-hit sectors on a year-on-year basis.

Graduate vacancies fell -9.6% month-on-month and -42.1% year-on-year to just 8,398 in May – the steepest annual decline on record, and now lower than at any point during the pandemic. Entry-level vacancies softened too, falling -4.2% month-on-month to 209,448, with average salaries broadly flat at £38,959.

The number of young people aged 16-24 not in education, employment, or training (NEET) has now passed 1 million for the first time, rising to 1,012,000 in January to March 2026 – up 89,000 on the year and representing 13.5% of all young people in this age group, according to ONS.

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IT remains the highest-paid sector, with average salaries of £66,477 and the strongest annual growth at +14.5%. Legal (£56,271) and Trade & Construction (£54,921) follow as the second and third highest-paid sectors. Maintenance recorded the largest annual pay decline of any sector, down -4.8% – the only sector to register a fall.

Graduate has overtaken Domestic Help & Cleaning as the lowest-paid sector on Adzuna, at £30,594, despite average graduate pay rising +2.9% annually. Domestic Help & Cleaning now sits just above it at £30,799, with salary growth of +9.3% continuing to close the gap with the rest of the market.

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Admin roles remain the quickest to recruit for, with vacancies filled in an average of 32.0 days, followed by Legal (32.4 days) and Maintenance (33.2 days). At the other end of the scale, Graduate roles now take the longest to fill at 40.8 days, followed by Energy, Oil & Gas (39.2 days) and IT (38.2 days).

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Methodology

About Adzuna

Adzuna is a smarter, more transparent job search engine used by tens of millions of visitors per month. We love using the awesome power of technology to bring together every job in one place, help match people to better, more fulfilling jobs and keep Britain working.

Adzuna supplies real-time data to the Number 10 Dashboard, the Cabinet Office and Office for National Statistics labour market indices. In 2018, Adzuna won the contract to run Find a job, one of the British government’s most used online services.

Adzuna.co.uk was founded in 2011 by Andrew Hunter and Doug Monro, formerly of eBay, Gumtree, Qype and Zoopla and is backed by leading Venture Capital firms LocalGlobe, Index Ventures and Smedvig Capital.

We’ve spent a decade developing smarter, more transparent job search so jobseekers worldwide (we’re in 19 countries) can zero in on the right role faster.

About the Job Market Report

Adzuna has the most complete index of UK job vacancies covering all regions in the UK. The technology collects every job vacancy advertised online in the UK from over 1,000 sources. This data is then normalised, de-duplicated, mix-adjusted and outliers are removed in real time to give users an accurate, complete, up to the minute view of the job market.

Claimant count data is based on the latest Labour Market Statistics released by the ONS. The city areas referred to in this study are the top 50 cities in the UK, ranked by comparing the job vacancies in Adzuna’s comprehensive search index of over 1,000,000 live jobs to the number of claimants in each city from the latest ONS data. The full Jobseeker’s Allowance claimant count statistics are available for download here: www.nomisweb.co.uk.

The interest quotient for key roles is calculated by comparing how many views job postings for different occupations on Adzuna receive over a given month and comparing this to the overall job posting views over the same period. It provides a proxy for talent supply in the jobs market.

For more granular data breakdowns at a local authority level, job title, or skill level, please contact our labour market intelligence division, Adzuna Intelligence.

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