UK Job Market Report
27 October 2025
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
The UK jobs market showed further signs of cooling in September as advertised vacancies dropped -2.4% month-on-month to 826,205 jobs, echoing ONS data that highlights a 39th consecutive period of vacancy decline.
This means open roles are now -4.1% lower than a year ago, and alarmingly, September records the lowest vacancy level this year suggesting employers are continuing to scale back hiring plans after a strong start to the year. In addition to broader economic headwinds, many UK employers appear to be pausing recruitment activity as they await November’s Budget announcement.
Salaries
While pay growth slows, pay packets continue to hold up. The average advertised salary rose slightly to £42,417 in September, a +0.12% month-on-month lift and +8.8% up year-on-year. While wage growth has eased from the rapid pace of late 2023, annual pay increases continue to outpace inflation (3.8%) and remain supported by April’s National Minimum Wage rise. Annual public sector wage growth now outstrips the private sector, up +6.0% compared to +4.4%, respectively.
Salary transparency also continued to decline. Just 43.5% of UK job ads last month included pay details, down from 43.9% in August and 45.0% in July, reversing the modest gains made earlier in the summer. This means more than half (56.5%) of all listings still omit salary information – a trend that’s persisted for much of 2025 despite rising calls for greater clarity.
Time to fill
The average time to fill a role sat at 36.5 days, shorter than the previous month’s 37.3 days.
Competition
Competition for roles is heating up. There are now over two jobseekers for every vacancy (2.06) – the highest ratio since early 2024 – as unemployment remains up at 4.8%.
Hottest cities
Cambridge remains the top city for job hunters, with the lowest jobseeker to available roles ratio at 0.4, with 6,535 roles available. Guildford comes second with 0.57 and Oxford third with 0.66.
The hardest city to find a role is Bradford, with 8.57 jobseekers per role, followed by Birmingham (5.53) and Luton (5.19).
UK regions
Vacancies fell across almost every part of the UK in September, extending the cooling trend that has run through the second half of the year. The steepest monthly declines were seen in London (-4.55%), South East (-2.51%), and Eastern England (-2.4%), all of which have now posted three consecutive months of contraction. Northern Ireland (+1.16%) was the only region to hold steady. Annually, Wales (-10.3%) and Scotland (-7.4%) saw the sharpest drops in job openings.
Salaries continued to trend upward across most regions. Wales (+12.7%) led the UK for annual pay growth, followed by Scotland (+11.2%) and Eastern England (+9.6%). London remains the highest-paying region overall, with average advertised salaries of £48,771, comfortably above the national average of £42,417.
UK sectors
Hiring activity was mixed in September, with modest gains in a handful of frontline sectors offset by wider slowdowns elsewhere. Retail led the growth, with vacancies up +8.1% month-on-month, supported by early seasonal hiring. Manufacturing (+3.7%) and Logistics & Warehouse (+3.0%) also saw solid increases, suggesting continued resilience in supply chain and production roles.
Several major sectors saw further declines in September. Consultancy roles led the fall (-9.9%), followed by PR, Advertising & Marketing (-7.8%), and Legal (-5.5%). Healthcare & Nursing vacancies dropped -5.4% month-on-month and are now -22.3% lower year-on-year, highlighting continued challenges.
On the pay side, IT (+11.9%), Teaching (+10.1%), Manufacturing (+9.4%), Retail (+9.0%), Trade & Construction (+9.0%) and PR, Advertising & Marketing (+8.2%)saw modest annual rises, while only two sectors Charity & Voluntary (-2.4%) and Travel (-1.8%) posted small annual salary declines.
When it comes to hiring speed, Admin (31.3) and Legal (31.6) roles filled faster than the national average of 36.5 days, while hiring took the longest in Healthcare & Nursing (40.0 days), Energy, Oil & Gas (39.9) and Social Work (39.9), and Teaching (39.4).
Trending jobs
Warehouse Worker retained its position as the UK’s most searched-for role in September, according to Adzuna’s Trending Jobs rankings, followed by Healthcare Assistant and Cleaner in second and third place. Both of which saw significant jumps from 5th and 8th place, respectively, the month prior. This ranking is based on the Interest Quotient, a metric that tracks how often job postings are viewed relative to other occupations. A higher quotient reflects a stronger interest among jobseekers.
Social Care Worker and Healthcare Support Worker rounded out the top five, reflecting continued interest in care and support roles despite hiring slowdowns in the wider healthcare sector. This was followed by Sales Assistant, which has been in the top 10 for 11 out of the past 12 months. Project Manager and Assistant also continue to hold steady in 7th and 8th but the new additions of Delivery Driver and Manager completed the top ten. Delivery Driver hasn’t been in the Top 10 since April, while Manager last made an appearance a year ago.
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.