The latest UK Job Market Report by job search engine Adzuna has seen the UK job vacancies increase marginally in September. Gains in sectors including Trade & Construction, Logistics & Warehouse and Graduate have resulted in a small increase in advertised roles – up +0.39 per cent from August to 861,085. Coupled with falling inflation and growth in GDP, has given more reasons for confidence in the jobs market than in recent months.

The increase in roles comes as unemployment fell slightly to 4.0 per cent, which also brought the number of jobseekers per available roles, down to 2.08. September’s job figures represent a fall of -15.81 per cent compared to the same time last year, demonstrating that the UK job market has settled into its new normal.

Advertised annual salaries increased in September, up +0.24 per cent monthly to £38,984 and up +5.1 per cent compared to the same time last year. Yet salary transparency remains at record low levels, with just 46.34 per cent of jobs posted with salary, compared to 53.66 per cent posted without.

Jobs are posted on Adzuna for an average of 35.8 days before being filled, the same as in last month. Sectors where jobs are filled most quickly are Legal (31.8), Teaching (32.2) and Admin (32.3), whilst the sectors which are the longest to fill include Energy, Oil and Gas and Travel (44.4 days), Graduate (41.1) and Healthcare & Nursing (38.8).

Trade & Construction and Teaching driving job growth

After experiencing a -2.62 per cent fall in vacancies month-on-month in August, Trade & Construction experienced a momentous surge in new job adverts, up +14.95 per cent in September. This was followed by increases in Charity & Voluntary (+6.57 per cent), Logistics & Warehouse (+4.76 per cent), Graduate (+4.6 per cent), Creative & Design (+3.54 per cent), Hospitality & Catering (+3.27 per cent), Social Work (+2.46 per cent), Retail (+1.16 per cent), Teaching (+0.91 per cent), Property (+0.86 per cent) and Healthcare & Nursing (+0.13 per cent). The increase in Graduate roles is particularly positive for younger jobseekers. There are now nearly 23,000 Graduate roles on Adzuna, the highest number recorded this year, with the average Graduate salary at £24,736 – the highest since Adzuna started tracking in April 2016.

“Advertised vacancies have bounced back from a slight dip in August, reflecting what appears to be the new normal for the jobs market now,” commented Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna. “Over the past year, vacancy numbers have hovered between 850,000 and 870,000, underscoring how tight the labour market has become. At the same time, average advertised salaries are continuing to rise, albeit very slowly, with a growing lack of salary transparency making it increasingly difficult to track these metrics. However, positive movements in sectors such as Trade & Construction, Logistics & Warehouse and Graduate, coupled with falling inflation and growing GDP, offer more reasons for optimism in the jobs market than in recent months. In fact, an early snapshot of October shows that vacancies were up +3.23 per cent compared to the same period in September, driven by an increase in Travel, Retail and Teaching roles.”