According to data from Adzuna, job vacancies in the UK dropped by 15% compared to last year in January. This marks the lowest number of job advertisements in nearly three years, indicating
a cooling labor market trend.
Despite the economy experiencing a shallow recession in the latter part of the previous year, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey noted a state of "full employment" with the official unemployment rate at 3.8%.
The central bank aims to temper wage growth, currently exceeding 6%, to alleviate inflation pressures, which remain double the target rate.
The decline in job vacancies may suggest that employers are facing less difficulty in recruitment compared to the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, when vacancies peaked at over 1.3 million.
In January 2024, Adzuna reported 867,436 job advertisements in Britain, the lowest since April 2021 and down from over 1 million the previous year. Adzuna's co-founder, Andrew Hunter, described January as one of the toughest starts to the year for job seekers in recent times, with companies delaying hiring plans.
The ratio of job seekers to advertised vacancies increased to 1.81 from 1.48 compared to the previous year. However, preliminary data for February suggests a stabilization in the number of vacancies.
Previous data from the Office for National Statistics indicated an 18% annual decline in job vacancies for the three months leading up to January.
Adzuna also reported that the average starting salary, disclosed by employers for nearly half of the advertised positions, was £38,168 ($48,450), reflecting a 3.0% increase compared to the previous year. Photo by Phil Whitehouse, Wikimedia commons.