The UK jobs market continued its cautious recovery in May, with annual vacancy growth and rising wages offering signs of resilience despite a modest monthly decline in job postings.
However, entry-level opportunities have taken a significant hit, dropping by nearly a third since the advent of widely available generative AI tools at the end of 2022.
According to the latest UK Job Market Report from job matching platform Adzuna, the number of advertised vacancies fell slightly by 0.51% in May to 858,465 roles.
Despite this, year-on-year growth remained positive at +0.49%, marking the third consecutive month of annual improvement and suggesting a slow but steady recovery from the recent market slump.
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Pay continues to be a bright spot, with average advertised salaries rising for the twelfth month in a row. May saw the average advertised salary reach £42,403, up 0.3% from April and up 9.38% compared with a year earlier – making it the strongest run of annual pay growth since mid-2022. This rise has been bolstered in part by April’s 6.7% increase to the national living wage.
However, these broader improvements are not benefiting all parts of the workforce equally. Graduate job postings dropped by 4.2% in May and are now down 28.4% compared with the same time last year—the lowest level seen since July 2020.
More broadly, entry-level roles (including apprenticeships, internships and junior jobs) have declined by 32% since November 2022, when ChatGPT’s commercial breakthrough triggered a rapid transformation in how companies operate and hire.
Entry-level roles now make up just 25% of all jobs advertised in the UK, down from nearly 29% two years ago.
“May reinforced the sense that the job market in the UK is gradually regaining its footing,” said Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna. “While overall vacancies dipped slightly, we’ve now seen three straight months of annual vacancy growth – a clear shift after more than a year of decline. Advertised salaries continue to climb, too, with average pay up nearly 9% compared to last year, comfortably outpacing inflation.
“While certain sectors remain in strong demand and provide a backbone of stability, we will be keeping a close eye on the decline in roles for the previously steady healthcare and nursing sector and how that may play out over the coming months.”
The seasonal jobs market provided a boost in the run-up to summer. Logistics and warehouse vacancies rose by 9.77%, with creative and design (+6%) and hospitality and catering (+5.61%) also seeing monthly gains. Teaching vacancies increased by 1.63%, with over 169,000 roles live in May, keeping education the most active hiring sector in the UK.
By contrast, the healthcare and nursing sector – previously a consistent driver of job growth – saw vacancies fall by 10.21% in May. Other sectors with notable drops included admin (-9.22%), maintenance (-7.95%), and domestic help and cleaning (-5.72%).
Hiring times have improved slightly, with the average job now taking 35.8 days to fill, down from 39.5 days earlier in the year. However, competition has also intensified, with 2.02 jobseekers per vacancy (calculated by the ONS) in May – up from 1.98 in April. The north-east of England remains the most competitive region with 3.32 jobseekers per role, while south-west England is the least competitive at 1.32 per vacancy.
The number of jobseekers per vacancy increased in 10 of the UK’s 12 nations and regions in May.
Salaries continue to grow fastest in Northern Ireland, where advertised pay rose by 12.63% year-on-year to £40,726.
London remains the UK’s highest-paying region at £48,680, followed by eastern England at £41,013.
The most in-demand roles remain focused on essential services and accessible employment. Healthcare support workers topped Adzuna’s Trending Jobs list for the sixth consecutive month, followed by social care workers and sales assistants. Software developers also re-entered the top five, signalling renewed interest in skilled tech roles.
Despite continuing challenges in some sectors, the overall picture for the UK job market in May was one of cautious optimism – tempered by signs that the rise of AI and automation may be reshaping the landscape for entry-level workers.
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