The latest UK Job Market Report by job matching platform Adzuna has shown the UK job market increased year-on-year growth for the second month in a row as seasonal sectors like Hospitality & Catering experience surging demand ahead of the summer holiday rush.
New job openings remained up +1.02 per cent compared to the same time last year, as average advertised salaries continued to climb, +8.94 per cent to £42,278, the strongest annual growth since 2021. However, monthly vacancies fell slightly, down -0.95 per cent month-on-month to 862,876, showing there remains some volatility in UK hiring.
Healthcare & Nursing and Social Work continued to boost the jobs market in April, with postings rising +1.94 per cent and +0.29 per cent month-on-month, respectively. These sectors have now seen double-digit growth over the past six months. Meanwhile, the biggest monthly gains were seen across Logistics & Warehouse (+4.62 per cent) and Hospitality & Catering (+5.6 per cent).
Elsewhere, the average time it takes to fill job roles jumped to 39.5 days, up from 35.3 days in the previous month. At the same time, the number of jobseekers per vacancy rose slightly to 2.02, up from 2 in March.
After two months of increases in the number of job adverts listing salary details, salary transparency dipped down to 47.89 per cent from its recent high of 48.62 per cent. This means more than half of ads (52.11 per cent) now don’t list wages in job descriptions.
April brought further momentum in a number of key sectors, offering cautious optimism to jobseekers across the UK. Hospitality & Catering (+5.6 per cent), Logistics & Warehouse (+4.62 per cent), Property (+2.32 per cent), Healthcare & Nursing (+1.94 per cent), Teaching (+1.71 per cent), and Retail (+1.38 per cent) each posted gains, underlining continued demand in care-related and consumer-facing industries.
However, not all sectors shared the growth. After plummeting -17.3 per cent in March, Graduate roles fell a further -7.6 per cent in April, marking a yearly decline of -22.8 per cent. The sectors offering the biggest graduate openings in April are Customer Services (2,823 jobs), Teaching (2,664 jobs), IT (1,681 jobs), and Healthcare & Nursing (634 jobs).
Trade & Construction saw the largest monthly fall in vacancies (-15.18 per cent), nevertheless, the sector recorded the strongest year-on-year growth (+49.75 per cent) across all sectors.
Annually, eight other sectors saw increases, with Teaching (+37.24 per cent), Social Work (+22.46 per cent), and Legal (+16.88 per cent) seeing the strongest growth. Other losses were felt across Retail (-39.4 per cent), Energy, Oil & Gas (-33.65 per cent), IT (-23.21 per cent) and PR, Advertising & Marketing (-22.7 per cent), which each saw the sharpest annual declines.
Since the Autumn budget announcement on National Insurance contributions increase in October 2024, several sectors experienced a sharp decline in job postings, with Retail vacancies down -38.99 per cent alongside Logistics & Warehouse (-21.56 per cent), and Scientific & QA (-16.62 per cent). On the other hand, Trade and Construction and Healthcare & Nursing vacancies grew +37.68 per cent and +20.63 per cent compared to October 2024, respectively.
“After signs of recovery in March, April brought a reminder that this remains a delicate job market,” commented Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna. “Vacancies dipped and salary growth, while still strong on an annual basis, is starting to show signs of slowing. That said, the broader trends are still heading in the right direction. We’ve now seen two consecutive months of annual vacancy growth – something we hadn’t experienced in over 18 months – and advertised pay is up almost 9 per cent compared to this time last year, continuing to outpace inflation. Demand remains particularly high in healthcare, logistics, and teaching, and the strength of these sectors is helping stabilise the market overall. The recovery is real and we’re seeing progress, just not at full speed yet.”
