For the first time in two years, UK vacancies have fallen below one million, according to an early snapshot of the UK job market, signalling a decline in confidence ahead of the festive break.
According to the UK Job Market Report by job search engine Adzuna, after consistently growing through the first half of 2023, salaries and vacancies have fallen significantly in the second.
HR and recruitment and graduate recruiting have had a particularly difficult year. HR and recruitment jobs have been consistently falling month on month since January when jobs fell by 14.52% compared with the month before. In November, available jobs in HR and recruitment were down by 42.5% compared with a year before.
In November, overall UK job advertisements fell 2.72% compared with October, and are down 8.55% compared with last year.
Adzuna’s figures support those of the ONS earlier this month.
UK vacancies in November 2023
ONS: Pay growth falling as vacancies continue to drop
Salaries have risen for the first time since June – up 0.74% compared with October and nearly 2% higher than last year.
However, 2023 has also been the worst year on record for salary transparency – fewer than half of jobs advertised since July have disclosed a salary (48.95% on average).
According to Adzuna, the trends point to a significant dive in company confidence, with advertised vacancies falling by 2.72% between October and November to just 998,562 postings.
While falling vacancies suggest the UK’s jobs market is stalling, Adzuna found that advertised salaries were rising for the first time since June. They were up 0.74% in November, seeing average advertised salaries of £37,221.
London continues to be the only region in the UK seeing annual declines in average advertised salaries, down 2.02% in November.
East Midlands saw the highest year-on-year growth in November, overtaking Northern Ireland and Yorkshire and Humber, which have been consistently two of the top regions for salary growth throughout 2023. This growth in the East Midlands has been driven by an increase in average salaries in Leicester, up 6.77% to £34,781.
With one of the worst years on record for salary transparency, it’s still difficult for potential recruits to understand compensation for the roles they’re applying for” – Andrew Hunter, Adzuna
Leeds has consistently been one of the top cities outside London for high salaries but experienced a slight fall in advertised salaries (-0.14%) between October and November to £38,397. The city has even been overtaken by the likes of Cambridge (£39,432), Oxford (£39,454) and Reading (£40,305), which now offer the highest salaries outside of the capital.
Teaching has been the largest recruiting sector on Adzuna throughout 2023. At its highest level, in June, there were 120,000 teaching vacancies, up 34.1% from June 2022. The average advertised salary also hit its highest in June, reaching £31,695.
IT has also seen a significant slowdown in recruiting. Apart from June when monthly vacancies increased 0.11%, the IT sector has seen recruitment numbers drop consistently. In November, demand for IT jobs was 31.4% lower than in November 2022, yet it is still the third-highest recruiting sector on Adzuna, with 86,7850 roles available, behind engineering (88,294) and teaching.
On average, it takes 35.8 days to fill new roles, the highest it has been for the past three months.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: “Salaries appear to be rising again yet with one of the worst years on record for salary transparency, it’s still difficult for potential recruits to understand compensation for the roles they’re applying for. As we head into 2024, finding a job will likely stay tough for the first part of the year.”
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