In a recent update to Adzuna’s intelligence portal, our proprietary dashboard that displays a wide range of aggregate data based on all the vacancy listings we hold on our site, we introduced the Employer Intelligence feature. This allows users to examine data about specific employers and their vacancies, providing valuable insights on the labour demanded by different employers which can be cut by geography, occupation and skill.
Advertised vacancies, by employer
We thought we’d make use of this feature by taking a look at the labour demand of the UK’s top hiring employers. The chart below displays some of the top hiring employers in the UK, based on the number of unique vacancies they had between 15/01/23 – 15/01/24.
Graph 1: Advertised vacancies at the UK’s top hiring employees
Tesco was by far the UK’s biggest recruiter during the period, not surprising given that it is one of the country’s largest employers and a high level of employee turnover is common in the retail industry. Other top hiring employers in the retail industry include Lidl (5th largest), Asda (6th), Sainsbury’s (11th) and Boots (16th).
The second largest hiring employer, Barchester Healthcare which runs hundreds of care homes and several hospitals, had approximately half the number of vacancies compared to Tesco. Three other employers in the healthcare industry feature within the top hiring employers – Newcross Healthcare Solutions (7th), NHS Health Scotland (9th) and Nuffield Health (10th). Note that whilst the NHS is by far the UK’s largest employer, when vacancies are separated out across the various trusts then the number of vacancies per each individual ‘employer’ within the NHS is diluted down, hence why the NHS as a whole is not the top hiring employer in our data.
There are then four employers among the top hirers in the accommodation and food services industry – Compass Group (3rd), Mitchells & Butlers (12th), Sodexo (14th) and Whitbread (15th).
Finally, the construction industry is represented by AECOM (4th) and SSE, the utilities company, is 8th largest hiring employer.
Advertised salaries, by employer
Let’s take a look then at how well these big employers pay, based on the salaries attached to their vacancies.
Given that they operate in different industries and recruit for very different occupations which will result in significant differences in their average salaries, we look at how well each of these employers pays by occupation that they recruit for compared to the market average for that specific occupation. We use the 2020 Standard Occupational Classification to categorise occupations. These comparisons will give us an idea of how well each employer pays compared to the market average.
However, various other factors, such as the composition of the employer’s listings (e.g., in terms of seniority level or whether full- or part-time), will lead to differences in the median salary offered by an employer versus the market that don’t actually reflect a difference in the competitiveness of their offering which is what we’re really interested in.
It should also be noted that the sample sizes used in this analysis are often quite small (especially for the specific employer’s salaries), which may affect the results. Also, only occupations recruited for by an employer for which salary data is available are included. We’ll look at the employers in turn by the industry they operate in.
Advertised salary, by industry
Retail
The table below displays the occupations Tesco were recruiting for during the period considered, the median salary the offered for roles in the occupations, the median salary for the occupation across the entire labour market, and a comparison of these two figures to see how competitive Tesco’s offering is.
Table 1: Analysis of advertised salaries at Tesco
| Occupation | Median salary offered by Tesco | Median salary for the occupation | Percentage of median salary for the occupation offered by Tesco |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security system installers and repairers | £96,500 | £35,823 | 269% |
| Pharmacists | £48,209 | £52,357 | 92% |
| Heavy and large goods vehicle drivers | £38,668 | £29,655 | 130% |
| Plumbers & heating and ventilating installers and repairers | £38,500 | £39,670 | 97% |
| Customer service occupations n.e.c. | £37,500 | £24,081 | 156% |
| Cyber security professionals | £37,000 | £55,172 | 67% |
| Functional managers and directors n.e.c. | £37,000 | £61,016 | 61% |
| Rail transport operatives | £34,064 | £31,641 | 108% |
| Finance and investment analysts and advisers | £32,000 | £44,635 | 72% |
| Information technology trainers | £29,500 | £35,723 | 83% |
| Managers and directors in retail and wholesale | £29,250 | £28,409 | 103% |
| Restaurant and catering establishment managers and proprietors | £28,000 | £30,693 | 91% |
| Catering and bar managers | £28,000 | £30,001 | 93% |
| Warehouse operatives | £24,883 | £22,685 | 110% |
| Delivery drivers and couriers | £24,089 | £26,070 | 92% |
| Customer service supervisors | £23,347 | £24,097 | 97% |
| Bar and catering supervisors | £23,040 | £23,792 | 97% |
| Cooks | £22,080 | £21,631 | 102% |
| Programmers and software development professionals | £22,000 | £56,739 | 39% |
| Security guards and related occupations | £20,832 | £21,360 | 98% |
Across 35% (7/20) of the occupations that they were recruiting for, Tesco offered above the market rate for the occupation. In the three occupations it recruits most heavily for (Customer service supervisors; Delivery drivers and couriers; Pharmacists), Tesco pays below the market rate. As such, when we construct an average of the proportion of the market salary that Tesco pays by occupation weighted by the number of vacancies it had listed for that role, we see that the retailer pays only 95% of the market rate on average.
Two of Tesco’s competitors in the retail industry – Asda and Sainsbury’s – also typically offer a bit below the market rate by occupation, on average offering 89% and 93% of the market rate respectively.
Boots however offers well below the market rate – only 57%. Now this might in part be a function of something specific about how Boots advertises salaries on its listings, although this might actually reflect reality to an extent given that the main occupation it hires for is Pharmacists which is a high paying occupation (with a median listed salary of approximately £52,000) and for which the median listed salary (approximately £22,000) is roughly in line with lower paying, more ‘traditional’ retail roles (e.g., Customer service occupations not elsewhere classified for which the median listed salary is approximately £20,000).
Lidl meanwhile typically offers 3% higher than the market rate for the occupations it recruits for.
Healthcare
The relatively highest paying out of the top employers in the healthcare is Newcross Healthcare Solutions. The table below contains the same salary information as above for this employer, for those occupations with at least 100 listings (as Newcross recruits for a much larger number of different occupations than Tesco).
Table 2: Analysis of advertised salaries at Newcross Healthcare Solutions
| Occupation | Median salary offered by Newcross Healthcare Solutions | Median salary for the occupation | Percentage of median salary for the occupation offered by Newcross Healthcare Solutions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered mental health nurses | £99,840 | £46,463 | 215% |
| Registered children's nurses | £99,840 | £50,543 | 198% |
| Registered nurse practitioners | £72,960 | £47,429 | 154% |
| Registered specialist nurses | £72,960 | £43,370 | 168% |
| Registered community nurses | £63,014 | £43,845 | 144% |
| Other registered nursing professionals | £63,014 | £40,861 | 154% |
| Other elementary services occupations n.e.c. | £39,206 | £24,070 | 163% |
| Care workers and home carers | £30,462 | £22,880 | 133% |
| Social workers | £30,182 | £25,288 | 119% |
| Early education and childcare practitioners | £23,991 | £22,829 | 105% |
Across the board, Newcross Healthcare Solutions pays above the market rate, averaging out across all its listings at 38% above the market rate.
Barchester Healthcare, the top hiring employer in the industry, pays exactly market rate. These top hiring employers naturally carry significant weight in setting market rate for the occupations where they are a dominant recruiter, so in many cases it is not surprising that the salaries they offer are in line with the market.
NHS Health Scotland and Nuffield Health meanwhile each pay on average 95% of the market rate for the occupations they recruit for.
Accommodation and food services
The top hiring employers in the accommodation and food services industry all recruit for quite a large number of different occupations, and each of them typically pays below the market rate for the occupations they recruit for.
Compass Group on average pays 92% of the market rate across all the occupations it recruits for, including Chefs (the most recruited occupation) for which it pays 86% of the market rate.
Sodexo typically pays 93% of the market rate, slightly above Compass Group, although it pays only 81% of the market rate for Chefs.
Mitchells & Butlers and Whitbread meanwhile pay on average 96% and 95% of the market rate.
Other
We don’t consider AECOM in the analysis of salaries as only a small number of its vacancies have salary information attached. Improving salary transparency is important for improving equality in employment outcomes for certain groups, and is an issue that we at Adzuna care deeply about.
Lastly, SSE in the utilities industry pays around 22% higher than the market average for the occupations it recruits for.
Read more: Analysing the demand for apprenticeships