A tightening UK jobs market saw competition for new roles reach a three-year peak in August. Meanwhile, there was a sharp uptick in benefit claimants because of redundancies and long-term sickness.
These, plus the finding that the August jobseekers per vacancy figure was the highest since May 2021, were the key takeaways from Adzuna’s latest UK Job Market Report.
The UK job market saw competition for roles peak in August 2024, with 2.09 jobseekers per vacancy, the highest level in three years, according to Adzuna’s data. This followed a slight rise in unemployment and a further decline in vacancies, marking a period of stagnation. Job adverts dropped by 0.5% compared with July, down 17.46% from August 2023, with vacancies totalling 857,765 last month.
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An increase of 154,000 claimants entering the job market between June and August 2024, driven by redundancies and long-term illness, contributed to the growing competition for jobs. Despite this, advertised salaries continued to rise slightly, reaching an average of £38,892, up 3.17% year-on-year. However, salary transparency remains an issue, with 53% of adverts omitting salary information, making it harder for jobseekers to find suitable roles.
The report highlighted a cautious approach from companies, with job postings now staying open for an average of 35.8 days, an indication that employers are hesitant to make new hires. Legal roles had the shortest posting duration at 31.3 days, while energy, oil and gas jobs took the longest at 45 days.
Sector-wise, travel saw the largest fall in vacancies, down 10.94%, followed by sales and accounting. Conversely, there was positive growth in sectors such as graduate, domestic help and cleaning, and hospitality and catering. Encouragingly, graduate vacancies increased for the fourth consecutive month, offering hope to recent university leavers.
The stasis in the market – with vacancies almost constant – suggests companies are hiring only for specific roles” – Andrew Hunter, Adzuna
Regionally, jobseekers in Northern Ireland faced the highest competition, with 5.62 jobseekers per vacancy, while the south west and south east of England had the lowest competition. Wales ranked lowest for salary growth, with average salaries rising just 1.4% compared with August 2023.
Warehouse and cleaning roles remained the most in-demand for the 15th and third consecutive months, respectively, on Adzuna’s trending jobs list, which tracks jobseekers’ interest.
Adzuna’s co-founder, Andrew Hunter, noted that despite July’s brief recovery in vacancies, August saw a return to stagnation. He added: “The stasis in the market – with vacancies almost constant – suggests companies are hiring only for specific roles and instead waiting to see if the economy picks up into autumn before embarking on growth and expansion.”
Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said the vacancy levelling could reassure the Bank of England about future interest rate cuts. He said: “For those who might have been hoping to see some greener shoots over the summer, today’s vacancy figures from Adzuna are a bit disappointing. Nonetheless, stepping back a bit, it does look like vacancies are definitely levelling off at around 850,000, competition for jobs is returning to more normal levels and employers are filling their jobs pretty quickly. All of this should give the Bank of England a bit more confidence on future interest rate cuts.”
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