Adzuna – April UK salaries return to 2021 levels, with vacancies remaining steady

Prospects for job hunters in the UK continued to slowly improve in April, building on the early signs of recovery seen in March, according to the UK Job Market Report by smarter job search engine Adzuna.
The total number of advertised vacancies, as well as annual advertised salaries in the UK saw modest growth throughout April. There were almost 1.05 million job postings across the UK – up 0.18% month-on-month – and average annual advertised salaries increased to £37,658, a rise of 0.34% since March.
The increases take job vacancies to a new peak for 2023, although total vacancies remain almost a fifth lower than they were this time last year. Advertised salaries for open roles across the UK have also now recovered to Spring 2021 levels, when salaries were the highest they’ve been since Adzuna’s records began in 2016.
Table 1: UK Vacancies, jobseekers per vacancies and advertised UK salary

April 2023
March 2023
Monthly
Change
Annual change from April 2022
UK Vacancies
1,045,949
1,044,112
+0.18%
-19.45%
Jobseekers per Vacancy
1.53
1.49
+0.04
+0.27 (from 1.26)
Av. Advertised UK Salary
£37,658
£37,530
+0.34%
+2.9%
Hospitality and energy roles rising
Adzuna’s monthly jobs report analyses real-time, whole-of-market information based on all the jobs currently advertised in the UK. While the total number of vacancies rose in April, more than three-quarters of sectors (77%) saw falling vacancies. The month saw a continued increase in roles across hospitality and catering (+3.34%), energy, oil and gas (0.7%) and nursing (+0.7%).
At the opposite end of the spectrum, logistics and warehouse vacancies dropped by 10.2% in April, after rising by one of the highest levels (8%) in March – a net drop of 2.2% over the two-month period. IT vacancies saw a 4.5% drop followed by graduate roles (-4.4%).
Similarly, PR advertising and marketing vacancies dropped by 0.78% in April, after seeing a marked increase of almost 10% in March.
Salaries increasing
Average advertised salaries have been increasing consecutively month-on-month since October 2022, reaching a high of £37,658 in April. Whilst this month-on-month increase was relatively low – at +0.34% – it still represents a 3% annual growth. This wasn’t enough to keep up with inflation, which was 7.2% on average in April, yet the gap between the two is closing.
Sector-wise, the biggest annual growth in advertised salaries in April was seen in Healthcare and Nursing jobs (up 17.1%), and Domestic and Cleaning roles (up 13.1%). The biggest annual drops were seen in IT and HR and Recruitment jobs, 4.6% and 3.6% respectively.
As pressure continues for employers to display job salaries, April also saw a month-on-month increase in the number of job ads giving salary information – up 1.5 percentage points in April (51.5%) compared to March (50.8%). However, there is still some way to go to match the transparency seen in April ‘22, when 64.6% of job ads displayed salary details.
Competition rising
Two indicators emphasise the ongoing tightness in the job market, with employers competing to secure the best candidates. Nationwide, the number of jobseekers for each vacancy in April was 1.53 people for every role, compared to 1.49 in March. This figure has been climbing steadily since last summer. At the same time, roles are being filled faster than at any time since 2016 with employers needing on average just 36 days to fill positions across the UK – some of the lowest levels in six years.
The best areas to look for work
For the second month running, Northern Ireland had the highest year-on-year average advertised salary increase in the regions, up 9.7%, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (8.8%) and the North East (7.9%). South East England saw the lowest increase, up 4.62%.

If we take a deeper dive into the data on salaries across these regions, Northern Ireland and Yorkshire and Humber remain at the top of the list because the highest city-level salary increases were seen in Leeds and Belfast.
Similarly, South East England sits at the bottom of the table due to drops in salaries in London as well as in Cambridge, Crawley, and Maidstone.

Cambridge remains the best place to get a job in the UK, with more 9,000 advertised roles and around 0.26 jobseekers per vacancy. The average advertised salary is still second only to London. Other areas with low competition for jobs include Guildford (0.36), Exeter (0.45) and Oxford (0.57).
By comparison, the highest competition for roles is in Bradford, Rochdale and Middlesbrough. There are almost six people (5.94) per vacancy in Bradford, 4.39 people in Rochdale, and 4.29 people in Middlesbrough.
Social care is trending
For the first time, the Adzuna job market report now reveals which jobs are trending across the UK.
Using data from its Intelligence Portal, this metric tracks demand for a wide range of occupations and designates an Interest Quotient for each role. The higher the quotient, the more in demand those roles are among Adzuna jobseekers.
In April, more jobseekers were viewing roles in Social Care than any other sector, followed by warehouse workers and lorry drivers.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder at Adzuna, said: “April’s Job Market Report confirms the real-time recovery in the UK job market first visible in March, with vacancies and salaries continuing to rise. Although the monthly increases are smaller than what we saw in previous months, we are seeing more jobs available than ever before this year. As a result, jobseekers are still facing high competition but employers are filling positions at a faster rate. It’s clear that the job market is still volatile, but we are encouraged by the steady growth we’re seeing.”
Tony Wilson, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said: “These new figures are reassuring. Vacancies appear to have levelled off at around a million but jobs are also being filled pretty quickly again, suggesting that this reflects continued strong demand in the economy rather than chronic shortages and jobs going unfilled. Combined with pretty modest growth in advertised salaries, this also suggests that some of the inflationary pressures from the labour market may be starting to ease. Nonetheless, with a million unfilled jobs and more than three million people who want to work, perhaps the biggest takeaway is that we should be doing far more to help people who want job to find the jobs that want people. This would be good for the economy, for employers, and for all of our living standards.”
Adzuna’s monthly UK Job Market Report provides the most up-to-date snapshot of employment opportunities across the country, based on every job vacancy advertised online in the UK from over 1,000 sources, across all UK regions. Adzuna also supplies real-time data to the Number 10 Dashboard, the Cabinet Office and the Office for National Statistics labour market indices. More granular data breakdowns at a local authority, job title, or skill level, are also available via Adzuna Intelligence.