UK Job Market Report
23 December 2024
Adzuna has the most complete index of UK job vacancies covering all regions in the UK, based on every job vacancy advertised online in the UK from over 1,000 sources. This data is then normalised, de-duplicated, mix-adjusted and outliers are removed in real time to give an accurate, complete, up to the minute view of the job market. Our UK Job Market Report tracks advertised vacancies, average advertised salaries, competition for jobs, trending roles, time to fill positions, and more.
We also supply real-time data to the Number 10 Dashboard, the Cabinet Office and the Office for National Statistics’ labour market indices. For more granular data breakdowns at a local authority level, job title, or skill level, please contact our labour market intelligence division, Adzuna Intelligence.
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Vacancies
November was a record-breaking month for the UK job market in 2024 in which both vacancies and average salaries jumped to their highest point of the year. Vacancies were up +2.3% to 879,399 in November.
Salaries
The average advertised salary climbed to £39,646 in November, up +6.5% year-on-year, the biggest annual rise since April 2021.
After four months of steady improvements, salary transparency dipped in November. Some 47.54% of roles listed the salary details as part of the ad, down from 47.68% in September. This means that more than half of job ads still don’t disclose salary details.
Time to fill
The average duration of a job posting dropped to 32.8 days, the shortest time-to-fill rate seen since Adzuna’s records began in 2016. This is almost a whole week faster than the 39.5 days seen in October.
Competition
The number of jobseekers per vacancy fell for only the second time this year in November, dropping to 2 applicants per role down from October’s figure of 2.08.
Hottest cities
Cambridge remains the top city for job hunters, with the lowest jobseeker to available roles ratio at 0.4, with 2,705 roles available. Guildford comes second with 0.47 and Exeter third with 0.66.
The hardest city to find a role is Bradford, with 9.35 jobseekers per role, folowed by Birmingham (5.28) and Luton (4.95).
UK regions
Advertised vacancies are up month-on-month in all regions, led by Northern Ireland (+6.6%), North West England (+4.44%), and South West England (+3.59%).
All regions experienced positive increases in year-on-year average advertised salaries for the second time in a row. Wales overtook Scotland, thanks to its +7.3% annual salary growth, yet London slipped back down the table after leapfrogging Yorkshire And The Humber, and South West England for the first time in October.
UK sectors
November saw a notable recovery in key sectors. Logistics & Warehouse jobs led the way with a +12.56% increase in vacancies month-on-month and a +8.3% annual growth. Healthcare & Nursing followed with +9.0% monthly growth and Trade & Construction also saw a strong rise, with vacancies increasing by +6.3% compared to October. With the year-end deadline for accounting nears, Accounting & Finance roles grew +4.7% monthly.
Some sectors struggled. Domestic Help & Cleaning jobs saw the largest decline, dropping -6.02% month-on-month, while Travel jobs fell -4.8%, suggesting reduced activity post-summer. IT jobs also experienced a decline, down -3.6% compared to October.
Teaching vacancies saw significant annual growth, rising +25.8% compared to November 2023 while Retail jobs plummeted by a massive -40.6% year-on-year. In fact, a total of 14 sectors saw annual vacancy number declines by more than a fifth in November.
Salaries continued to climb across most sectors in November, with Maintenance jobs leading the pack, posting a +5.3% month-on-month increase. This was followed by Energy, Oil & Gas average salaries rising +3.14% over the same period. In addition to soaring vacancies, Logistics & Warehouse salaries rose by +2.94%, while Scientific & QA jobs saw a notable +2% gain, underscoring competition for skilled professionals.
In contrast, a few sectors reported slight declines or slower growth. Hospitality & Catering salaries fell marginally by -0.69% month-on-month, and Domestic Help & Cleaning salaries dropped by -0.28%. Although both are still significantly higher compared to the same time in 2023, up +5.4% and +8.9% respectively. Retail salaries remained stable with a modest +1.2% monthly rise, yet this sector saw the highest year-on-year growth of +15.1% of any sector in November.
Across 29 sectors analysed, 25 saw annual salary increases averaging 8% across the board. Of the only four sectors that saw declines, Legal salaries fell the most by -3.07%.
Among sectors, Energy, Oil & Gas roles took 37.5 days to fill – a significant 29.5% faster than the 53.2 days average seen in the previous month. Yet Legal, and Property roles remain among the fastest to fill, taking an average of 30.4 days between them.
Trending jobs
After dropping off the top spot for the first time in 17 months in October, Warehouse Worker reclaimed its position as the most in-demand role on Adzuna’s Trending Roles list last month. This metric ranks occupations based on their Interest Quotient, which measures how often job postings are viewed relative to other roles. A higher quotient indicates greater demand among jobseekers.
Healthcare Support Worker rose to second place in November, up from fourth in October, while October’s most in-demand role, Sales Assistant, dropped two places to third.
Methodology
About Adzuna
Adzuna is a smarter, more transparent job search engine used by tens of millions of visitors per month. We love using the awesome power of technology to bring together every job in one place, help match people to better, more fulfilling jobs and keep Britain working.
Adzuna supplies real-time data to the Number 10 Dashboard, the Cabinet Office and Office for National Statistics labour market indices. In 2018, Adzuna won the contract to run Find a job, one of the British government’s most used online services.
Adzuna.co.uk was founded in 2011 by Andrew Hunter and Doug Monro, formerly of eBay, Gumtree, Qype and Zoopla and is backed by leading Venture Capital firms LocalGlobe, Index Ventures and Smedvig Capital.
We’ve spent a decade developing smarter, more transparent job search so jobseekers worldwide (we’re in 19 countries) can zero in on the right role faster.
About the Job Market Report
Adzuna has the most complete index of UK job vacancies covering all regions in the UK. The technology collects every job vacancy advertised online in the UK from over 1,000 sources. This data is then normalised, de-duplicated, mix-adjusted and outliers are removed in real time to give users an accurate, complete, up to the minute view of the job market.
Claimant count data is based on the latest Labour Market Statistics released by the ONS. The city areas referred to in this study are the top 50 cities in the UK, ranked by comparing the job vacancies in Adzuna’s comprehensive search index of over 1,000,000 live jobs to the number of claimants in each city from the latest ONS data. The full Jobseeker’s Allowance claimant count statistics are available for download here: www.nomisweb.co.uk.
The interest quotient for key roles is calculated by comparing how many views job postings for different occupations on Adzuna receive over a given month and comparing this to the overall job posting views over the same period. It provides a proxy for talent supply in the jobs market.
For more granular data breakdowns at a local authority level, job title, or skill level, please contact our labour market intelligence division, Adzuna Intelligence.