UK Job Market Report
23 February 2026
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.
Vacancies
UK hiring weakened again in January, continuing the downward trend seen throughout late 2025, with vacancies falling -3.05% monthly to 694,940 jobs.
This is the lowest overall vacancy level for five years, and the first time advertised vacancies have dropped below 700,000 since January 2021. Vacancies are now approaching pandemic-era levels, sitting only marginally above where the labour market stood during the pandemic.
Compared to January 2025, vacancies were down -16.12% and -19.63% since six months ago, highlighting how sharply opportunities have contracted since mid-2025 and reinforcing the difficult conditions facing jobseekers in the wake of high cost of living, increased National Insurance costs and the rising use of AI.
Salaries
Wage growth continues to provide a rare bright spot for job hunters. The average advertised salary reached £43,289 in January, rising +0.69% month-on-month and +5.98% year-on-year. While annual wage growth falters, it remains well above inflation, which recently fell to 3%.
Seven sectors — IT (+12.79%), Domestic Help & Cleaning (+12.4%), HR & Recruitment (+9.36%) Retail (+8.19%), PR & Advertising & Marketing (+7.65%), Sales (+6.7%), and Consultancy (+6.29%) — all continued to record strong annual pay growth in January, comfortably outpacing national average (+5.98%) and inflation. Annual public sector pay grew again by +7.2% compared to the private sector’s +3.4%.
At the same time, salary transparency fell further with just 41.57% of job adverts including pay details in January. This means nearly 3 in 5 roles (58.43%) are now advertised without salary information, adding another layer of uncertainty for jobseekers navigating the increasingly competitive market.
Time to fill
The average time to fill a role fell to 34.9 days from 35.9 days in the previous month.
Competition
Rising competition remains a defining feature of the market. The number of jobseekers per vacancy increased in January to 2.4, up from 2.27 in December as ONS data shows unemployment climbed to 5.2% – the highest rate since 2020.
UK regions
January saw vacancies continue to retreat across the UK. London saw the sharpest monthly drop, with advertised roles falling -5.61%, followed closely by East Midlands (-4.32%) and North West England (-4.24%). While all regions recorded a monthly decline, the North East had the smallest vacancy drop, with a marginal decline of -0.89% and 3.91 jobseekers per vacancy.
By contrast, the South West (1.62) and South East (1.73) offer the most favourable conditions for candidates, with fewer applicants chasing each role.
Positively, every part of the UK recorded both monthly and annual increases in advertised pay. Wales again stood out, posting the strongest annual growth at +10.66%, extending its run of consecutive double-digit increases to a full year.
Scotland (+8.39%) and Northern Ireland (+7.31%) also saw year-on-year gains, while London retained its position as the highest-paying region with average salaries rising to £49,966, bringing it closer to the £50,000 mark. No other region currently matches the capital’s pay levels, although continued growth in Northern Ireland (+7.31% annually; £42,305) suggests the gap could be narrowing.
UK sectors
After a welcome jump (+18.3%) in December, entry-level jobs declined again in January, along with Graduate roles. Entry-level vacancies fell -4.46% monthly to 197,044 jobs, while graduate jobs plummeted -19.1% monthly. Notably, graduate jobs have fallen below 10,000 for the first time since Adzuna started tracking this metric in April 2016.
Year over year, entry-level positions are now -4.4% lower than this time last year, while graduate vacancies are down -45% annually – the biggest annual decline since November 2020. The proportion of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEETs) has remained at record highs since 2014, at 946,000.
Hiring activity weakened across most other major sectors in January, too, particularly in frontline and operational roles. This included Logistics & Warehouse vacancies with the steepest decline, down -17.58% month-on-month, followed by Retail (-15.37%) and Hospitality & Catering (-11.57%).
Professional roles remained under strain, with Legal, Property, IT and Accounting & Finance roles falling -11.09%, -7.11%, -5.96% and -5.4% monthly respectively, and HR & Recruitment declining -4.80%, as did Healthcare & Nursing and Engineering with vacancies down -1.15% and -2.91% respectively.
Yet a small number of sectors showed signs of resilience. Domestic Help & Cleaning vacancies continued to go from strength to strength, with roles rising +3.92% monthly in January. Teaching roles also rose again +4.07% month-on-month and are now up +11.74% annually. Both Consultancy and Engineering sectors outperformed the national trend (-3.05% monthly; -16.12% annually), despite remaining in decline. Consultancy jobs dropped -2.16% monthly and -3.03% annually, while Engineering vacancies fell -2.91% monthly and -9.22% annually.
In terms of pay, IT remained the highest-paid sector in January, with average salaries rising to £63,428 amid the strongest annual growth (+12.79%). Despite the fall in vacancies, annual Graduate pay rose +2.7% in January. Logistics & Warehouse salaries fell the hardest month-on-month at -2.53%, while Maintenance jobs saw the largest annual pay drop at -3.70%.
Having seen all other sectors exceed the £30,000 mark since August 2025, Domestic & Cleaning annual salaries finally joined the pack, rising +12.4% year-on-year to £30,137.
Admin roles remained the quickest to recruit for, with vacancies filled in an average of 31.5 days, followed by Retail (32.6 days). At the other end of the scale, Energy, Oil & Gas vacancies took an average of 39.3 days to fill, followed by Creative & Design (38.3), IT (38.3), and Scientific & QA roles (37.8).
Trending jobs
After briefly leading Adzuna’s Trending Jobs list in December, Healthcare Support Worker slipped back into second in January, overtaken by Warehouse Worker. Cleaner held onto third place, continuing its long-standing presence among the UK’s most searched-for jobs. Lorry Driver and Delivery Driver followed closely behind, reflecting sustained demand for logistics and transport roles despite wider hiring slowdowns. Making up the second half of the top 10 were Driver, Social Care Worker, while Labourer entered the list for the first time since May 2025, and Kitchen Assistant re-entered at 10th after falling out in November.
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.