Salary transparency has hit “rock bottom” despite the number of job vacancies rising in July, according to new research.
The Adzuna Jobs Market Report found that last month, more than half (52.3%) of job advertisements did not provide any pay information – the lowest level since the recruitment platform started tracking this metric in 2016.
According to the research, the proportion of adverts that included wage details dropped to 46.3%, while the number of vacancies significantly increased for the first time this year.
The report showed openings in July were up 1.1% month on month to 862,043, with graduate roles rising by 3.7%, showing confidence is particularly growing in hiring junior staff.
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James Neave, head of data science of Adzuna, said: “Optimism about the UK economy following higher than expected growth figures and a new government has extended into the jobs market with the first monthly rise in job postings this year in July.
“An increase of +1.1% may seem small but we’re used to seeing job postings fall during the summer months as companies put hiring plans on pause because of holidays.
“Confidence is even extending into junior-level hiring with graduate roles up +3.7% compared to June which is great news for those leaving university. We’ll have to see if this optimism extends into August but it should bring some respite to job hunters for now.”
However, the report further found the job market remained at its most competitive since May 2021, during the pandemic, with the number of jobseekers per vacancy rising to 2.09 in July from 1.95 the previous month.
The data revealed that advertised pay increased very slightly by 0.08% to an average of £38,863, but was still 2.95% higher than in July 2023.
Year-on-year, only the IT sector saw a drop in advertised pay, with salaries down 3.67% compared to the previous year. The largest annual rises were found to be in sectors including energy, oil and gas (18.03%), social work (11.76%), retail (10.86%) and domestic help and cleaning (8.85%).
Additionally, there are fewer vacancies this year, with listings down by 17.69% from last year, which shows the market still has a long way to go to achieve a full recovery, according to Adzuna.
Job roles are being filled quickly, taking an average of 35.6 days in July compared to 36 days in June.
Property jobs were found to have the shortest job posting time (32 days), followed by those in teaching (32.2 days) and legal sectors (32.6 days). The longest live job posting time was in the travel industry at 48.8 days, followed by energy, oil and gas (44.8 days) and IT (40 days).
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