According to Adzuna’s latest data, both vacancies and salaries reached new highs for the year in March.
The platform for matching jobs recorded its first annual increase in vacancies since 2022. Vacancies also grew for the second consecutive month, increasing by 1.38% from month to month. 871,168 positions were available.
In March, the ratio of jobseekers per vacancy remained unchanged at 2,04, the same as in February after reaching 2,05 in January.
The average time to fill a job role is now 35 days, up from the previous month’s 34.9 days.
Healthcare, nursing, and social work saw the highest growth in vacancies, with an increase of 9.59%, 8.64%, and respectively, month-on-month.
The sectors with the fastest time to fill roles were legal (31.1 day) and administration (32 day), while the sectors that took the longest were energy, oil and natural gas (40.1), IT (39.2 day), and consulting (38.4day).
Adzuna reports that there are still more job ads without salary information compared to those with. However, salary transparency has increased in March, to 48.62%. This is the third consecutive month with an increase.
Adzuna’s largest hiring sector was education, with a growth of 1.93% per month. This equates to 163,000 new jobs.
Some sectors saw a decline in roles for graduates, which fell by over 17% compared to the 16.7% increase in February.
Jobs in trade and construction fell by 4.6% month-on-month, while those in science and technology declined by 3.0%, and jobs related to energy, oil, and gas by 2.9%.
Salaries are increasing in most sectors. Energy, oil and Gas saw the highest monthly wage growth of 3.6%. This was followed by healthcare and nursing (1.9%), and teaching (2.9%).
Only three sectors experienced a salary drop month over month: Sales (-1,2%), Maintenance (-0.5%) and Charity & Voluntary (0,2%).
The highest annual growth was in the logistics and warehouse sector, with a gain of nearly a fifth (19.6%). Maintenance salaries followed at 17.4%. The sales, maintenance, and charity sectors all reported slight declines from year to year.
Legal was the only industry to see a decrease in salaries for a second consecutive month. The 1% decline compared to the March 2024 period is the largest.
Northern Ireland led the way in terms of both job vacancies and salary increases, with an increase of 36.4% and 13.1% respectively.
Adzuna reports that there are five regions where the average annual salary is above PS40,000. London has the highest average salary at PS48.276.
Andrew Hunter, Adzuna’s co-founder, said that it was encouraging to observe “green shoots” on the UK job market.
This will mitigate the fears of employers about the impact of the April increases in national insurance and the [national] living wages.
The increase in advertised salaries and roles for March indicates a growing employer confidence, especially across the healthcare, social care, and education sectors. Salaries continue to rise steadily. The average advertised pay is up by +8.6% since last year. This is the fastest rate of growth since 2022, and it’s ahead of inflation.
“There are signs of caution, however. The abrupt reversal of graduate hiring shows just how fragile the recovery can be. Employers may be waiting to see more clear economic signals before they commit to hiring entry-level employees. “For now, however, the return of annual growth is a positive move, no matter how modest.”
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