UK Job Market Report
30 October 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 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
September saw 1,022,833 UK advertised vacancies, down -1.6% from 1,039,198 in August, in the third consecutive month of decline. However, vacancies are down just -6.6% compared to the same time last year.
Salaries
Advertised salaries dropped again to an average of £37,093 in September, down -1.6% on £37,697 in August. Year-on-year, advertised salaries are still +1.7% higher than in September 2022 (£36,473).
In the face of increasing competition for roles, more employers are choosing not to advertise salaries. Only 47.8% of UK job ads disclosed salary details in September – the lowest since our records began in April 2016.
Time to fill
The average time to fill vacancies has continued to slow and is now on par with the quickest times seen this year in March. On average, UK job postings remained open for just 34.6 days in June 2023 (the latest data), down from 36.0 in May and much reduced compared to 43.4 a year before in June 2022.
Competition
Competition for jobs has climbed month-on-month, with 1.51 jobseekers per vacancy in September, rising from 1.47 in August. Competition for jobs is also steeper than a year ago, when September 2022 saw 1.38 jobseekers per vacancy.
Hottest cities
Cambridge continues to be one of the best cities to find a job, with 0.26 jobseekers per vacancy and 8,825 advertised roles available, up slightly from August when there were only 0.25 jobseekers per vacancy. Guildford and Exeter continue to place second and third with 0.38 jobseekers and 0.40 jobseekers per vacancy respectively.
Bradford remains the toughest city to find a job with 5.92 jobseekers per vacancy and just over 3,000 advertised roles, putting the city ahead of Rochdale (3.86) and Middlesbrough (3.63).
UK regions
Scotland remains the region with the strongest annual growth in advertised vacancies, up +12.4% year-on-year to 64,580 in September, followed by Northern Ireland (+10.4%) and Wales (+9.2%). London saw the biggest annual decline in advertised vacancies, falling -13.6% to 200,164 in September.
Every region across the UK saw salary declines in September, to varying degrees. The biggest decline was in the West Midlands, where salaries dropped by -2.05% month-on-month. The smallest decline was in South West England, where salaries were down -0.95%.
However, year-on-year salaries across all regions – except London – are up +3.9% on average.
UK sectors
23 sectors saw drops in vacancies month-on-month in September including the Energy sector, which saw vacancies plummet -7.0% month-on-month, and Trade & Construction falling -6.3%.
Teaching vacancies, which have been falling consistently month-on-month since June, fell again in September, by a further -3.3%. However, the number of vacancies is still +43% higher than at the same time last year, and teaching remains the top hiring sector with almost 110,000 positions advertised last month.
The resurging hospitality and travel sectors are actively recruiting with Travel seeing the greatest month-on-month increase in vacancies at +11.1% to 4,941 advertised vacancies in September. Travel vacancies are up +22% in the past six months. Hospitality vacancies were up +5.3% in September and +16% since Spring, with 81,855 advertised positions on offer.
Almost two-thirds (65.5%) of sectors saw advertised salaries fall in September, a significant increase from last month’s 50%. The Social Work sector saw the biggest decline, with salaries down -3.21% in August to £32,192.
The largest month-on-month increase was seen among Energy roles, where salaries increased +1.3% on August’s figures. Given the drop in vacancies across this sector, it indicates a possible shift towards higher-skilled roles in this sector. The same was seen in Manufacturing. The sector has seen a significant yearly drop in vacancies (-29%), yet has experienced a +8.65% yearly increase in salaries. As well, despite the fall in advertised graduate roles, advertised salaries have increased by +1.48% compared to last year.
Legal jobs offered the highest average salaries in September – up +1% to £53,329 – overtaking IT salaries for the first time this year. The IT sector saw a -2.65% decrease in advertised salaries last month, and a -9.15% decrease year-on-year. This is the largest annual drop of any sector. IT vacancies have also fallen by a third since 2022 suggesting high volatility in the sector. However, at £52,218, average salaries in IT are still significantly higher than the UK average of £37,093.
Looking at the latest data on the average duration of job ads for June 2023, time to fill continues to vary across sectors. Admin roles remain the fastest to fill (31 days) while Energy, Oil & Gas roles are the slowest (41 days).
Trending jobs
The data also tracks the most popular occupations among UK jobseekers. For the fourth month running, warehouse work is the top trending job. Lorry driving jobs came second again, although last month’s third-place role – social care work – has been overtaken by admin assistant roles.
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 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.