The latest UK Job Market Report by job matching platform Adzuna has delivered the first annual growth in vacancies since July 2022. The change was a modest +1.03 per cent to 871,168. Meanwhile, average salaries continued climbing to a record-high £41,962 – a +8.6 per cent YoY increase, and the highest annual jump since June 2022. These figures also represented a +1.38 per cent rise in monthly vacancies and a +1.12 per cent MoM increase in average salaries, continuing February’s turnaround.
The rise in total vacancies saw March’s jobseeker per vacancy ratio remain steady at 2.04, the same as February, after hitting 2.05 in January. Meanwhile, the average time it takes to fill job roles is now 35.3 days, up from 34.9 days in the previous month.
Healthcare & Nursing and Social Work continue to be major contributors to monthly growth, with vacancies in each sector growing by +9.59 per cent and +8.64 per cent respectively. Sectors with the shortest time to fill jobs were Legal (31.1 days) and Admin (32.0 days), whilst the sectors where roles took the longest to fill include Energy, Oil & Gas (40.1 days), IT (39.2 days), and Consultancy (38.4 days).
Salary transparency increased again in March to 48.62 per cent, and while this means there are still more job adverts without salary information (51.38 per cent), it marks the third consecutive month of growth.
March saw a continued uplift in hiring across the majority of sectors, giving further hope to jobseekers across the UK following February’s rises.
Teaching roles rose by +1.93 per cent month-on-month to over 163,000 jobs, maintaining their position as the largest hiring sector. Healthcare & Nursing (+9.59 per cent), Social Work (+8.64 per cent), Travel (+8.55 per cent), and Hospitality & Catering (+5.91 per cent) also experienced strong monthly growth, reflecting ongoing demand in frontline services and seasonal hiring ahead of the Easter and Summer rush. Social work (+18.04 per cent) also saw year-on-year gains, as did Legal (+17.47 per cent), demonstrating signs of resilience in education, care, and professional services.
However, some sectors saw month-on-month vacancy declines, with Graduate roles falling the most (-17.3 per cent), following a previous +16.7 per cent surge in February, with roles dropping to 16,373 – the lowest since Sep 2020. This was followed by Trade & Construction jobs (-4.57 per cent), Scientific and QA jobs (-2.95 per cent), and Energy, Oil & Gas (-2.9 per cent).
Annually, the drops were even more pronounced, particularly in Retail (-43.11 per cent), Travel (-37.47 per cent), Energy, Oil & Gas (-33.06 per cent) and PR, Advertising & Marketing (-30.61 per cent).
Elsewhere, salaries continue to edge upward across most sectors. Energy, Oil & Gas saw the strongest monthly wage growth at +3.6 per cent, followed by Teaching (+2.86 per cent) and Healthcare & Nursing (+1.81 per cent). Only three sectors reported salary dips, including Sales (-1.24 per cent), Maintenance (-0.48 per cent), and Charity & Voluntary (-0.23 per cent).
On an annual basis, a number of sectors recorded double-digit salary growth. Logistics & Warehouse led the pack with +19.64 per cent growth, followed by Maintenance (+17.35 per cent), Domestic Help & Cleaning (+13.2 per cent), Retail (+12.88 per cent), Customer Services (+12.76 per cent), Teaching (+11.92 per cent), IT (11.31 per cent), and Travel (+10.74 per cent). Legal was the only sector to post a decline in annual salaries for the second consecutive month, down -1 per cent compared to March 2024.
“After more than two years of sluggish annual growth in vacancies, it’s encouraging to see signs of green shoots finally returning to the UK job market, with modest year-on-year growth,” said Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna. “This will help mitigate the worst fears around the impact of the National Insurance and Living Wage increases for employers in April. March’s rise in both advertised roles and salaries points to growing employer confidence – particularly across healthcare, social care and education.”
However, despite some cause for optimism, Hunter warned there were still signs of caution. “The sharp reversal in graduate hiring shows how fragile recovery can be, and employers may be waiting for clearer economic signals before committing to entry-level hiring,” he said. “For now, though, the return to annual growth, however modest, is a positive step.”
