New UK graduates are facing one of the toughest job markets in recent years, with annual graduate roles down -32.13% in September 2023 compared with the year before.
According to the UK Job Market Report by job search engine Adzuna, September saw 23,264 advertised job vacancies for graduates, falling -0.92% compared with August’s figures (23,480) and significantly lower than 34,277 a year ago. This was against a backdrop of falling vacancies across the board, with three-quarters of the sectors covered by Adzuna’s data reporting a slowdown in hiring, indicating potential cooling in the labour market.
In the face of increasing competition for roles, more employers are choosing not to advertise salaries”
Across all sectors, UK vacancies fell -1.57% in September to 1,022,833, in the third consecutive monthly decline. However, vacancies are down just -6.6% compared with the same time last year. There were 1.51 jobseekers per vacancy, compared with 1.47 in August and the highest it’s been since April 2023, leading to greater competition for roles.
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In the face of increasing competition for roles, more employers are choosing not to advertise salaries. Only 47.8% of ads disclosed salary details last month – the lowest since Adzuna’s records began in April 2016. Advertised salaries dropped again to £37,093 in September, down -1.6% on August. Year-on-year, average wages are still 1.7% higher than they were in September 2022 (£36,473).
September traditionally sees a surge in job market activity but the figures we’re seeing this year could signal a cooling off of the job market” – Andrew Hunter
Out of the 29 sectors in Adzuna’s job database, 23 saw drops in vacancies month-on-month in September with the energy sector and trade and construction seeing the biggest falls. Energy saw vacancies plummet -7% month-on-month, with trade and construction falling -6.32%.
Not all doom and gloom
Andrew Hunter, co-founder at Adzuna, said: “September traditionally sees a surge in job market activity but the figures we’re seeing this year could signal a cooling off of the job market, which had shown signs of resilience earlier in the year. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The year-on-year hiring gap has narrowed to its smallest in 2023. This suggests that despite the monthly setbacks, the annual outlook presents a more positive picture.”
Teaching vacancies, which have been falling consistently month-on-month since June, fell again in September, by a further -3.3%. However, the number of vacancies was still 43% higher than at the same time last year, and teaching remained the largest recruitment sector with almost 110,000 positions advertised last month.
The resurging hospitality and travel sectors were actively recruiting with travel seeing the greatest month-on-month increase in vacancies at +11.1% to 4,941 advertised vacancies in September. Travel vacancies were up 22% in the past six months. Hospitality vacancies were up 5.3% in September with 81,855 advertised positions on offer.
The time to fill vacancies has continued to slow to 34.6 days. Admin roles continued to be the fastest to fill (31 days) while energy, oil and gas roles were the slowest (41 days).
Salary fluctuations
Almost two-thirds (65.5%) of sectors saw wages fall in September which is a significant increase from last month’s 50%. The biggest decline was seen in the social work sector where salaries were down -3.21% in August to £32,192.
The largest month-on-month increase was seen among energy roles, where salaries increased 1.3% on August’s figures.
Legal jobs offered the highest average salaries in September – up +1% to £53,329 – overtaking IT salaries for the first time this year. The IT sector saw a -2.65% decrease in advertised salaries last month, marking a -9.15% decrease year-on-year. This is the largest annual drop of any sector.
Every region across the UK saw salary declines in September. The biggest declines were in the West Midlands, where salaries dropped by -2.05% month-on-month. The smallest declines were in south west England, where salaries were down -0.95%.
However, year-on-year salaries across all regions – except London – are up by 3.9% on average.
When it comes to cities, Leeds continues to be number one with advertised salaries up +7.52% compared with September 2022. Cambridge continues to be one of the best cities to find a job, with 0.26 jobseekers per vacancy and 8,825 advertised roles available. Guildford and Exeter continue to place second and third with 0.38 jobseekers and 0.4 jobseekers per vacancy respectively.
For the fourth month running, warehouse work is the top trending job on Adzuna’s Intelligence Portal. Lorry driving jobs came second again, although last month’s third-place role – social care work – has been overtaken by admin assistant roles.
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