UK vacancies rose to 875,546 in June – the strongest annual growth since July 2022, as figures signal a ‘potential turning point’ for the jobs market.
The figure represented a +2.68% year-on-year increase, according to the latest UK Job Market report by job matching platform Adzuna.
Monthly vacancies also increased (+1.99%) for the first time since March, although total listings remain below pre-pandemic levels.
Average advertised salaries climbed +9.18% year-on-year to £42,397, maintaining one of the longest runs of real pay growth since 2022.
Labour market
Entry-level job ads made up 25% of all job listings in June – the lowest in four years, but just -4 percentage points since the launch of ChatGPT.
Amid a backdrop of a 4.7% unemployment rate and wider economic slowdown, the new figures signalled progress on hiring confidence, found Adzuna, with month-on-month vacancies up after two consecutive months of decline, at +1.99%.
Encouragingly, said researchers, the economic inactivity rate was falling sharply, and was now down to 9.1 million, but still above pre-pandemic rates.
Average advertised salaries were boosted in part by April’s +6.7% increase to the national minimum wage.
Summer hiring has been strong this year, with 20,839 summer jobs available in June. By sector, hiring picked up in several sectors: trade and construction surged +16%, creative and design jobs +8.5%, retail +7%, legal jobs +6.2%, IT roles rose +5.1%, and marketing jobs climbed +5%. But healthcare and nursing roles, which have consistently been one of the biggest drivers of hiring growth, fell again in June, down -7.38% monthly.
Time to fill a role
The average time to fill a role rose to 36.4 days, up from the previous month’s 35.8 days. While salary transparency stalled, just 43.5% of job ads included pay details, unchanged from May and a signal that progress on employer openness may have reached a plateau.
For early-career workers, the outlook continues to be tough. Graduate job ads rose slightly in June (+3.6%), but are still down -27.2% year-on-year. Meanwhile, entry-level roles – including graduate jobs, apprenticeships, and junior positions – have dropped -30.4% since November 2022, when ChatGPT first launched commercially. Entry-level listings now account for just 24.5% of all UK vacancies, their lowest share since August 2021, though the proportion is down by just -4% compared with November 2022
Across the board, hiring times have held largely steady, although IT roles now take an average of 42.7 days to fill, up from 39.9 days last month.
Vacancies
Vacancies went up month-on-month across all UK regions in July, with the strongest gains in London (+4.34%), Northern Ireland (+3.8%), and the East Midlands (+2.5%). Year-on-year, London also led the way with the strongest year-on-year growth at 5.88%, followed by Eastern England (+4.29%).
London remains the highest-paying region, with average salaries at £48,643, followed by Eastern England (£40,959) and Northern Ireland. In total, eight regions now report average salaries above £40,000, reflecting broad-based wage inflation across the UK.
Northern Ireland remains one of the most competitive regions, with 3.09 jobseekers per vacancy, second only to the North East (3.32) and West Midlands (3.12).
At the other end of the scale, the south west of England offers the least competition, with 1.3 jobseekers per vacancy.
Trending jobs
The role of healthcare support worker held onto the top spot in Adzuna’s trending jobs list for June, maintaining its lead in the Interest Quotient rankings for the seventh month running. Social care worker remained in second place, while warehouse worker climbed back to third.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said June marked a potential turning point for the UK job market.
He added: “The UK labour market is making progress. However, demand is still patchy. While hiring is picking up in sectors like tech and construction, the drop in healthcare vacancies – one of the most resilient parts of the market – is something to watch. A sustained recovery will depend on strengthening employer confidence and making sure new roles emerge in areas where the workforce is most needed.”
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