UK vacancies up 48% year-on-year

The locations with the highest rates of jobseekers have been revealed in a new study. London, Manchester, Birmingham, and towns on London’s commuter belt topped the list. The study results indicate that as offices reopen and daily commuting re-commence, workers are searching for roles closer to home.

The research by job search engine Adzuna also revealed that every advertised London-based job ad received an average of 65 views during April – indicative of high job churn in the capital city and centre of the Great Resignation in the UK.

Second on the list of jobseeker activity was Manchester, with over nine views for every job listing. Birmingham was third at over seven views per ad.

Edinburgh, Scotland, and Cardiff, Wales, also featured on this list, with view rates of 2.5 and 1.83, respectively. Northern Ireland, however, didn’t feature on the list – possibly showing that the Great Resignation has not reached them yet.

Further findings for April 2022 included:

• Advertised vacancies in the UK were up 48% year-on-year, to 1,298,581.
• Over half a million vacancies were on offer across London and surrounding areas.
• The average advertised salary in London and surrounding commutable areas was £45,515.
• The average advertised UK salary was £36,587 in April. This is 3% lower than 12 months ago (£37,898).
• The number of advertised vacancies has exceeded the number of job seekers for the first time.

The study also revealed a growing interest in jobs within commuter towns. Slough and Heathrow experienced the fourth-highest jobseeker activity level. While traditionally, workers in these locations would have commuted into London, they are now looking for jobs closer to home. Job ads, on average, received over four views per posting in these areas.

There was also high jobseeker demand in other commuter towns around London:

• Chelmsford (2.47)
• Reading (2.45)
• Guildford and Aldershot (2.07)
• Luton (1.88)
• Crawley (1.87)

The commuter belt towns accounted for a fifth of the list of top 30 UK towns and cities with the highest jobseeker activity.

Looking across the UK, England had the highest activity from jobseekers, with an average of 3.6 views per job ad. Rates were much lower across the rest of the UK with Scotland at 0.26, Wales at 0.11 and Northern Ireland at only 0.03.

Paul Lewis, Chief Customer Officer at Adzuna, comments: “London is at the core of the Great Resignation in the UK, but our data reveals the trend is spreading out fast. In particular, jobs in commuter towns are seeing high interest levels driven by a renewed interest from Brits to spend more time at home. As offices have reopened and commutes have restarted, workers are looking for close to home options that will continue to give them the flexibility they got used to over the pandemic and various lockdowns, be that picking the kids up from school, or simply working flexible hours. The return-to-office is a huge driver of the current high movement between jobs, and companies offering fully remote options, or even much publicised ‘work from anywhere’ policies, are stealing a march on the competition and coming out on top.”