UK Job Market Report

31 July 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 fell for the first time in five months in July, dropping -1.03% to 791,490. The annual decline widened from -6.84% in May to -9.60% in July – the first widening since the downturn began easing in January, suggesting the recovery reported over the spring has gone into reverse.

Yet pockets of growth remain. Teaching, Travel, Trade & Construction and now Manufacturing – which turned positive for the first time this year – all posted genuine annual vacancy growth in July. Healthcare & Nursing, Hospitality & Catering and Logistics & Warehouse remain in sharp decline, all still shedding a quarter or more of their vacancies year-on-year.

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Salaries

Salary growth continued to cool in July. The average advertised salary fell -0.73% month-on-month to £43,675, though it remains +3.01% higher than a year ago. Annual growth stays comfortably ahead of inflation, but the deceleration since May 2025’s peak of +9.38% has now continued for well over half a year.

London remains the highest-paying region, at £51,157 – up +5.17% annually, though a slightly slower pace than the +5.42% recorded in May. IT remains the highest-paid sector nationally, with average salaries of £67,771, up +16.8% annually, the strongest growth of any sector. Maintenance (-2.0%) and Teaching (-1.1%) were the only sectors to record an annual salary decline.

Salary transparency improved slightly in July, with 43.29% of UK job ads including pay details – up from May’s 40.96%, but still down from 45.02% a year ago. More than half of all UK job ads (56.71%) are still 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 rose to 36.5 days, up from 35.4 days in May. Charity & Voluntary roles were fastest to fill at 30.2 days, followed by Teaching (31.1 days) and Legal (32.3 days). Customer Services has become the slowest sector to fill, at 52.3 days – up 48.2% year-on-year, the largest annual increase of any sector – followed by IT (42.4 days) and Healthcare & Nursing (41.1 days, up 20.9% annually).

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Competition

Competition for roles reversed course in July. Jobseekers per vacancy rose to 2.14, up from 1.93 a year earlier – the highest annual comparison recorded so far this year, after competition had been easing gradually since the start of the year. ONS data shows estimated vacancies fell by 7,000 (0.9%) to 712,000 in April to May 2026, compared with the previous quarter. There were 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy in March to May 2026, up from 2.3 a year earlier.

Regionally, North East England remains the toughest market for job seekers at 3.45 jobseekers per vacancy, followed by Wales (3.05) and West Midlands (3.25). South West England continues to offer the most favourable conditions, at 1.37, just ahead of South East England (1.42).

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UK regions

London remains the highest-paying region, with average advertised salary at £51,157 – still above £50,000, though a touch lower than May’s £51,319. Wales posted the strongest annual salary growth at +8.89%, continuing its long run of above-average wage increases, followed by North East England (+6.39%). South East England was the outlier in the other direction, the only region to see salaries fall year-on-year, down -2.41%, having been roughly flat in May.

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On vacancies, the picture reversed sharply. South East England was the only UK region with positive annual vacancy growth, up +0.65%. Scotland recorded the steepest annual decline of any region, at -21.4%, while Northern Ireland swung from the only region posting annual growth in March (+0.3%) to a decline of -7.5% in July – a notable reversal.

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UK sectors

Teaching remains the largest sector on Adzuna by a wide margin, with 192,366 vacancies in July – up +11.9% year-on-year, even as the figure eased back -11.5% since May. Trade & Construction also continues to expand, up +8.3% annually. Domestic Help & Cleaning remains the standout story in the wider market, with vacancies up 511% year-on-year, extending a surge that began in late 2025. Manufacturing turned positive on an annual basis for the first time this year, up +2.2%.

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 to 8,383 in July – a new record low, undercutting the previous low of 8,398 set in May – and down -45.6% year-on-year. Entry-level vacancies also fell back, dropping to 192,864, down -8.1% year-on-year and down from May’s 209,448, with average salaries easing to £38,162.

The number of young people aged 16-24 not in education, employment, or training (NEET) stood at 981,000 in April to June 2026 – down 30,000 on the previous quarter, but still up 30,000 on the year, at 13.0% 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 £67,771 and the strongest annual growth at +16.8%. Legal (£56,920) and Trade & Construction (£55,194) follow as the second and third highest-paid sectors. Maintenance (-2.0%) and Teaching (-1.1%) were the only sectors to register an annual pay decline – notable for Teaching, given its vacancies are among the fastest-growing in the market.

Graduate remains the lowest-paid sector on Adzuna, at £30,307, despite average graduate pay rising +1.2% annually. Domestic Help & Cleaning sits just above it at £30,948, with salary growth of +8.9% continuing to close the gap with the rest of the market.

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Charity & Voluntary roles remain the quickest to recruit for, with vacancies filled in an average of 30.2 days, followed by Teaching (31.1 days) and Legal (32.3 days). At the other end of the scale, Customer Services now takes the longest to fill at 52.3 days – up 48.2% year-on-year, the largest annual increase of any sector – followed by IT (42.4 days) and Healthcare & Nursing (41.1 days, up 20.9% annually).

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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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