The latest UK Job Market Report by job matching platform Adzuna last month recorded UK vacancies falling to their lowest levels since 2021 – down –3.61 per cent month-on-month to below 796,385 and -7.36 per cent annually – as competition for jobs reached a four-year high, according to.
Ahead of November’s Autumn Budget, businesses have stalled hiring plans, causing the vacancy numbers to fall below 800,000 for the first time since March 2021 as the jobseekers per vacancy ratio climbs to its highest level since May 2021, at 2.12 jobseekers per available role. This follows ONS data that shows UK unemployment is up from last quarter, at 5 per cent, the highest level since 2020.
Economic inactivity rate is at a 15-year high, with 2.8 million people currently out of work due to long-term sickness. According to the latest “Unlocking Britain’s Talent” whitepaper, more effective matching through data and AI tools could move up to 500,000 more people into work by 2029, easing pressure in hard-hit sectors such as healthcare. This could also save the UK an estimated £2.7 billion a year by cutting the benefits bill and more tax revenue.
Yet while vacancies fall, salaries continue to grow. The average advertised salary rose to £42,531 in October – a +0.27 per cent month-on-month lift and up +8.4 per cent year-on-year. This means wage growth continues to outpace inflation (3.6 per cent) and is particularly strong in the public sector – which saw +6.6 per cent growth compared to the private sector’s +4.4 per cent – as well as across Wales, where annual wages rose +12.59 per cent in October.
Despite this, more than half of sectors saw monthly vacancy gains in October, including Retail, Domestic & Cleaning and Travel. This uneven recovery highlights what Adzuna’s wider research calls the ‘mismatch gap’ – where roles remain unfilled despite high unemployment.
There were also positive signals when it comes to salary transparency. For the first month since July, the number of UK job ads with salary details listed rose in October – up to 46.3 per cent. This still means more than half (53.7 per cent) of all listings fail to include pay details, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Retail and Logistics roles continued to be buoyed by seasonal hiring, with vacancies up +11.7 per cent and +7.62 per cent month-on-month. This was beaten only by Domestic & Cleaning, with vacancies rising +27.2 per cent in just a single month, with Travel (+7.6 per cent) rounding out the top three.
After consistently topping the list of the worst-performing sectors for vacancies, Healthcare also rebounded in October. Advertised roles only fell by -0.85 per cent – a marked improvement on the -34.8 per cent decline seen over the past six months. However, even with this rebound, vacancies are still down -21.32 per cent annually, suggesting there is a long way to go.
Conversely, the biggest monthly declines were then seen in Customer Services (-2.9 per cent), HR (-2.09 per cent), Consultancy (–2.05 per cent), followed by Sales (–1.8 per cent) and Legal (–1.7 per cent).
“The ongoing trend of vacancies dipping as salaries climb suggests employers remain prepared to pay for the right talent, but are approaching hiring with greater caution and deliberation, particularly ahead of the Autumn Budget at the end of November,” said Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna. “Our research shows that improving the way employers and candidates connect could deliver real economic gains. Even a single percentage point improvement in job-matching efficiency can translate into tens of thousands of additional hires – precisely the kind of shift needed to reinvigorate our worsening labour market. Britain must act now to reinvigorate the job market – the technology exists to help more people into good work and I am eager to see public and private sector minds come together to capitalise on the opportunity.”
