UK Job Market Report
25 September 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 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 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
August saw 1,039,198 UK advertised vacancies, down -0.8% from 1,047,366 in July, as the summer slowdown continues. However, notably during the same time period last year, vacancies fell -4.2% between July and August, as continued competition for jobs and a tight labour market in 2023 has reduced the effects of seasonality this year.
Salaries
The average advertised UK salary sat at £37,697 in August 2023, falling slightly (-0.14%) from £37,750 in July. Year-on-year, advertised salaries remain +3.4% higher than £36,474 in August 2022.
The trend for employers to post jobs without advertised salaries continues as employers try to keep pay rates for new joiners confidential. In August, 50.1% of job ads featured advertised salaries compared to 49.9% without.
Time to fill
The average time to fill roles has continued to slow to 36 days, which though still below January’s high of 36.6 days, is the second-longest amount so far in 2023. On average, UK job postings remained open for 36.0 days in May 2023 (the latest data), up from 35.4 in April but still significantly lower year-on-year compared to 41.7 in May 2022.
Competition
There were 1.49 jobseekers per vacancy in August 2023, up from 1.48 in July. Competition for jobs has risen over the last year, with August 2022 seeing 1.35 jobseekers per vacancy.
Hottest cities
Cambridge is the best place in the UK to look for work with only 0.25 jobseekers per vacancy and over 9,000 total vacancies in the city. Second is Guildford (0.38) and Exeter comes third (0.40), which has fallen slightly from last month (0.41).
Bradford remains the toughest place to find a job, with 5.90 jobseekers per vacancy, up from 5.72 in July. This puts Bradford ahead of Rochdale (3.99) and Middlesbrough (3.62).
UK regions
Regionally, Scotland continues to see the strongest annual growth in advertised vacancies, up +13.3% year-on-year, followed by Northern Ireland (+9.1%) and Wales (+6.1%). Job postings have dropped most year-on-year in London, (-15.5%), followed by Eastern England (-14.1%) and the Eastern Midlands (-11.9%).
After spending seven months as the region with the highest annual increase in advertised salaries, Northern Ireland (+7.5%) has fallen to second place, behind the East Midlands (+7.8%). Eastern England has also experienced positive growth in salaries, up +5.3% in August, with Wales falling (+3.3%) to just above London. London remains the only region to see annual salaries fall, increasing from -1.2% in July to -1.5% in August.
UK sectors
Two-thirds of sectors saw a decline in job vacancies in August, following July’s lead. The Legal sector experienced a -4.9% fall in job roles, compared to July when it was one of the strongest. Graduate jobs also continue to decline, down -5.5% monthly and -21.1% annually, furthering pressure on new graduates entering the job market following the end of their studies. PR, Advertising & Marketing (-5.5%) and Teaching (-5.8%) also experienced notable falls.
Retail and Logistics & Warehouse sectors have seen the biggest monthly increase in advertised jobs, up +4.7% and +3.6% respectively, following strong growth in July, particularly at the big grocers including Asda, Lidl and Tesco.
The fall in overall salaries was seen across the UK, with half of sectors experiencing a drop in August compared to the previous month. Energy, Oil & Gas jobs saw advertised salaries increase the most, (+2.1%) whilst Retail experienced a drop of -1.5%. Given that vacancies have increased by nearly 5% in the Retail sector, the fall in average advertised salaries points to an increase in entry and junior positions.
HR & Recruitment and IT have experienced the biggest annual fall in salaries compared to August 2022, down -6.0% and -5.6%. IT jobs continue to offer the highest average advertised salaries to future employees, at £53,641, with Legal coming second at £52,803.
Looking at the latest data on the average duration of job ads for May 2023, time to fill is very much dependent on the sector. Admin (31.4 days) and Property (31.7 days) are the fastest sectors to fill vacancies, whilst Energy, Oil & Gas (42.1 days) and Logistics & Warehouse (49.3 days) are the slowest.
Trending jobs
The data also tracks the most popular occupations among UK jobseekers. For the third month running, warehouse work is the top trending job in August, with an interest quotient of 164.1. Lorry driving jobs came second (137.3), whilst social care work was the third most in-demand role among jobseekers (112.7).
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, Adzuna Intelligence.