UK Job Market Report
21 August 2023
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 1000 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 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.
Vacancies
There were 1,047,366 UK advertised vacancies in July, dropping -1.1% from 1,059,153 in June, as the jobs market slowed for the summer. The fall in vacancies is consistent with trends seen in previous years. Businesses typically slow hiring during quieter summer months before ramping up recruitment for Q4.
Salaries
July saw advertised UK salaries average £37,750, slightly lower (-0.15%) compared to £37,807 in June, but still up +3.7% from £36,404 in July 2022. However, advertised pay rates still remain at some of the highest levels seen since early 2021.
For the first time ever, there are now more jobs without advertised salaries compared to jobs with listed salaries, in what is set to be a blow to salary transparency campaigns. Just 49.9% of jobs ads stated a salary in July 2023, down from 59.1% a year ago.
Time to fill
The average time to fill roles has increased slightly month-on-month from its previous record low. On average, UK job postings remained open for just 35.4 days in April 2023 (the latest data), up from 34.6 in March but still significantly lower than 43.1 in April 2022.
Competition
There were 1.49 jobseekers per vacancy in July 2023, up from 1.45 in June. By comparison, July 2022 saw 1.30 jobseekers per vacancy, as competition for jobs has risen over the last year.
Hottest cities
Cambridge remains the best city in the UK to find a job, with the least competition for jobs at 0.25 jobseekers per vacancy, a figure which has remained steady since March 2023, however annual job vacancies in the city are down -9.1% compared to last year. Guildford (0.38), Exeter (0.41) and Oxford (0.57) also have low levels of competition for new jobs.
Bradford remains the city with the highest competition for jobs, at 5.72 jobseekers per vacancy, followed by Rochdale (3.93), Middlesbrough (3.68) and Luton (3.34).
UK regions
Regionally, Scotland has seen the strongest annual growth in job postings, rising +13.9% year-on-year, followed by Wales (+3.9%). London, meanwhile, has witnessed the greatest fall (-18.5%), followed by Eastern England (-16.9%) and the East Midlands (-15.1%).
Northern Ireland has continued its reign of experiencing the highest annual growth in salaries, up +9.5% since July 2022 – the seventh consecutive monthly rise for the region. East Midlands (+7.8%) rose ahead of Yorkshire and the Humber (+7.6%) whilst South West England has also seen salaries rise over 7% compared to last year. London continues to be the only region to see annual salaries fall, down -1.2%, which is marginally better than June’s decline (-1.3%).
UK sectors
Despite nearly all job sectors seeing a decline in vacancies, some sectors bucked the trend in July. Logistics and Warehouse jobs saw the biggest rise in vacancies (+3.9%), reversing a three-month decline. Legal saw an increase (+3.1%), along with Retail (+2.7%) and Manufacturing (+1.0%).
Only three sectors registered a fall in average advertised salaries compared to last July, Scientific and QA jobs (-1.6%), IT jobs (-4.2%), and HR & Recruitment (-5.9%). Social Work jobs have experienced the biggest increase in advertised salaries, up +20.5% to £33,577 on average compared to July 2022, whilst PR, Advertising and Marketing roles saw the smallest annual increase (+0.04%).
Looking at the latest data on the average duration of job ads for April 2023, Energy, Oil & Gas jobs took the longest to fill at an average of 41.8 days, followed by Graduate roles (41.5) and IT openings (39.0). Voluntary jobs continue to fill the fastest of any sector, with positions open for an average of just 27.6 days.
Trending jobs
The data also tracks the most popular occupations among UK jobseekers. Warehouse work continues to be the occupation attracting the highest level of interest in July 2023, with an interest quotient of 162.1. Lorry driving is the second highest trending job for the second month running, with social care roles also in high demand.
The data that Adzuna produce is an exceptionally rich and industry-leading source of real time insights into the labour market, local economies and what employers want. We’ve worked with the Adzuna team and their data across a range of projects, including labour market analysis, policy research and workforce planning and would highly recommend them.
Tony Wilson
Director
Institute for Employment Studies
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 20 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 1000 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.