Job hunters face stiffest competition in three years as job market tightens

A tightening UK jobs market saw competition for new roles reach a three-year peak in August.

With 2.09 jobseekers per vacancy last month, following another monthly fall in vacancies and a slight increase in unemployment, the UK jobs market is entering a period of stagnation, according to new data from the latest UK Job Market Report by job search engine Adzuna.

Following a rebound in new roles in July, August was another sluggish month for job hunters with advertised vacancies falling -0.5% MoM to 857,765, and down -17.46% YoY.

This was coupled with an increasing number of claimants, with 154,000 claimants entering the jobs market between June 2024 and August 2024, following a surge in redundancies and ongoing long-term sickness. Salaries continue to trend upwards with a minor increase in advertised average salary to £38,892, +0.07% MoM and +3.17% YoY compared to August 2023.

Salary transparency continues to be at some of the lowest levels Adzuna has recorded since 2016, with 53.02% of job adverts posted without salary information. Though this is a slight decline from July’s figures, it demonstrates how tough it is for job hunters to find the right role for them.

In a further sign of the tightness of the UK job market, the average duration of postings has increased to 35.8 days, which demonstrates that companies may be becoming more cautious about making new offers. The shortest duration of job postings is for Legal, at 31.3 days, followed by Property (32.2) and Teaching (32.3). The sectors with the longest duration of job postings are Energy, Oil & Gas (45.0), Customer Service (41.3).

After many sectors rebounded in July, August brought sharp monthly declines in advertised vacancies in key sectors. Travel was the worst hit, with vacancies falling by -10.94%, followed by Sales (-6.4%), Accounting (-6.01%) and Energy, Oil & Gas (-5.58%). Over half of sectors saw vacancies decline monthly, including Retail (-4.53%), Consultancy (-2.72%), Trade & Construction (-2.62%), Scientific & QA (-2.07%), Engineering (-2.05%), IT (-1.86%), Customer Service (-0.75%), PR, Advertising & Marketing (-0.73%), Admin (-0.72%), and Teaching (-0.24%).

However, there was some positive growth in 13 key sectors, particularly Graduate which saw advertised vacancies increase monthly by +2.3%, the fourth month in a row, which is good news for many of this year’s 900,000 university graduates. Domestic Help & Cleaning saw the largest monthly increase in roles to +8.88%. Other sectors with a rise in roles were Hospitality & Catering (+5.52%), Logistics & Warehouse (+4.35%), Creative & Design (+4.13%), Social Work (+3.95%), Healthcare & Nursing (+3.27%), Charity & Voluntary (+2.94%), Legal (+2.35%), Property (+1.99%), Manufacturing (+1.72%), Maintenance (+1.59%) and HR & Recruitment (+1.34%).

Following the continued downward trend for vacancies YoY, there were again only two sectors that experienced an annual increase in roles: Teaching (+20.69%) and Sales (+2.73%). Travel jobs fell annually for the first time in a few months, down -7.71% compared to August 2023. The sectors with the largest annual fall in vacancies included Trade & Construction (-50.58%), Admin (-48.82%) and PR, Advertising & Marketing (-37.54%), whilst sectors with the smallest fall were Logistics & Warehouse (-2.54%), Graduate (-6.7%) and Legal (-8.21%).

When it comes to advertised salaries, the majority of sectors experienced monthly increases in August, including Customer Service (+1.58%), Admin (+1.25%), PR, Advertising & Marketing (+1.03%). IT (+0.75%), Engineering (+0.55%), Sales (+0.55%), Hospitality & Catering (+0.54%) Maintenance (+0.54%), Logistics & Warehouse (+0.43%), Accounting (+0.42%), Graduate (+0.4%), Domestic Help & Cleaning (+0.35%), HR & Recruitment (+0.25%), Healthcare & Nursing (+0.14%), Travel (+0.12%) and Legal (0.1%). However, a handful of sectors did experience salary decreases, including Energy, Oil & Gas (-3.12%), Retail (-1%) and Creative & Design (-0.98%).

As overall average advertised salaries continued to increase YoY, so did sector salaries. The biggest increase annually was for Social Work (+12.32%), followed by Energy, Oil + Gas (11.96%), Retail (+11.51%) Customer Service (+9.99%), Domestic Help & Cleaning (+9.44%) and Admin (+9.01%). Sectors which experienced smaller gains include Hospitality & Catering (+8.05%), Manufacturing (+7.53%), Charity & Voluntary (+6.45%) and Travel (+5.74%). IT was the only sector to see salaries fall annually, -2.29%, compared to the same time last year.

South West England offers lowest job competition

Jobseekers in the South West and South East of England have a distinct advantage, with fewer than 1.5 jobseekers per vacancy. By contrast, jobseekers in Northern Ireland face the toughest competition, with 5.62 jobseekers per vacancy, significantly higher than other regions. The North East of England follows with 3.56 jobseekers per vacancy.

Meanwhile, West Midlands remained the top region for average salary growth in August, compared to August 2023, ahead of the East Midlands. Eastern England fell to fifth place, with North West England rising to third, with average salaries increasing by +5.22% to £37,684.

Wales has slumped to the bottom of the table, with average salaries only increasing by +1.4% compared to August 2023, below South East England and London.

For the 15th month in a row, Warehouse Worker has been the most in-demand role on Adzuna according to the platform’s Trending Jobs list. This metric tracks demand for a wide range of occupations and designates an Interest Quotient for each role. The higher the quotient, the more in demand those roles are among Adzuna jobseekers.

For the third month in a row, Cleaner came second, followed by Social Care Worker which rose to third place, up from sixth in July 2024.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said, “The increase in advertised vacancies in July sadly didn’t hold in August when a reduction in roles combined with a slight increase in redundancies and ongoing long-term sickness meant claimant numbers have spiked and competition for roles was at the highest level we’ve seen for three years.

“The stasis in the market – with vacancies almost constant – suggests companies are hiring only for specific roles and instead waiting to see if the economy picks up into autumn before embarking on growth and expansion. One bright spot is that graduate roles increased for the fourth month in a row, which may lead to vacancy growth down the line.”

Tony Wilson, Director at the Institute for Employment Studies, added, “For those who might have been hoping to see some greener shoots over the summer, today’s vacancy figures from Adzuna are a bit disappointing.

“Nonetheless, stepping back a bit, it does look like vacancies are definitely levelling off at around 850,000, competition for jobs is returning to more normal levels and employers are filling their jobs pretty quickly. All of this should give the Bank of England a bit more confidence on future interest rate cuts.”