UK vacancies fell to their lowest levels since 2021 last month – down –3.61% month-on-month to below 796,385 and -7.36% annually – as competition for jobs reached a four-year high, according to the latest UK Job Market Report by job matching platform Adzuna.
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%, 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% month-on-month lift and up +8.4% year-on-year. This means wage growth continues to outpace inflation (3.6%) and is particularly strong in the public sector – which saw +6.6% growth compared to the private sector’s +4.4% – as well as across Wales, where annual wages rose +12.59% 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%. This still means more than half (53.7%) 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% and +7.62% month-on-month. This was beaten only by Domestic & Cleaning, with vacancies rising +27.2% in just a single month, with Travel (+7.6%) 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% – a marked improvement on the -34.8% decline seen over the past six months. However, even with this rebound, vacancies are still down -21.32% annually, suggesting there is a long way to go.
Conversely, the biggest monthly declines were then seen in Customer Services (-2.9%), HR (-2.09%), Consultancy (–2.05%), followed by Sales (–1.8%) and Legal (–1.7%).
Conditions haven’t improved much for early-career workers either. Graduate jobs continued to fall in October, down -1.5% month-on-month to 13,541 jobs. This means they’re now -40.9% lower than October 2024. Average graduate pay held steady at £25,999, up +0.4% month-on-month and +3.6% higher than a year ago, and entry-level jobs generally grew +2.2% to 203,792. They now make up 26.43% of the total UK jobs market.
On the pay side, annual advertised salary growth remained positive across most sectors, with the strongest increases in Logistics & Warehouse (+16.59%), IT (+11.9%) and Domestic & Cleaning (+10.47%). Travel was the only major sector to see an annual salary decline, down -0.6%.
When it comes to hiring speed, Admin (31.1 days) and Legal (31.7 days) roles continued to fill faster than the national average of 36.5 days. In contrast, hiring took the longest in Teaching (44.5 days), Healthcare & Nursing (39.6 days), IT (38.0 days) and Energy, Oil & Gas (36.9 days), suggesting ongoing recruitment challenges in education, healthcare and tech fields.
Vacancies fell in every part of the UK in October with the steepest monthly, and annual declines seen in Wales (-9.13% MoM; -15.34% YoY) and Scotland (-5.66% MoM; -10.72% YoY). Notably, these are the regions which also saw the greatest increases in average salary, with pay rising +12.59% in Wales and +9.92% in Scotland.
London remains the highest-paying region in the UK, with average advertised salaries of £48,974, and the only region above the national average of £42,531. As a result, London continues to exert a strong upward pull on the overall figure, lifting the national average beyond what is being seen across the rest of the country.
Job competition remains highest in the North East, where there are now 3.56 jobseekers for every vacancy. Northern Ireland (3.44) and the West Midlands (3.3) follow closely behind. At the other end of the scale, the South West (1.44) remains the least competitive region, followed by the South East (1.56) and Eastern England (1.77), where demand for workers continues to outpace supply.
This latest data continues to underline structural weaknesses in the UK labour market, highlighted in a recent whitepaper. It found that inefficient job matching and regional disparities are costing the economy as much as £2.7 billion annually.
Warehouse Worker retained its position as the UK’s most searched-for role in October, according to Adzuna’s Trending Jobs rankings. Cleaner climbed into second place, overtaking Healthcare Assistant, which slipped to fifth. Healthcare Support Worker also rose sharply to take third, while Social Care Worker held steady in fourth.
Further down the list, Sales Assistant and Project Manager maintained consistent interest, holding mid-table as they have for consecutive months. Kitchen Assistant re-entered the top ten after not appearing since January. It sat in ninth place, suggesting renewed seasonal demand ahead of the winter period, while Manager held steady in tenth place.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of job matching platform Adzuna, said: “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.
“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.”
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