UK hiring bounces back as retailers and warehouses prepare for Christmas shopping demand

Christmas hiring is propping up the UK jobs market with an increase in Retail and Warehouse & Logistics vacancies causing total vacancies to rise ahead of the festive shopping period, reversing a four-month decline, according to UK Job Market Report by job search engine Adzuna.

Total advertised job vacancies in October reached 1,026,434, up +0.35% compared to September, the first positive growth since June this year. Whilst vacancies are still lower than last year’s levels, down -5.08%, this is the smallest year-on-year gap between annual vacancy rates since February 2023, when hiring trends had fallen by a fifth compared to 2022 (-20.72%).

It’s not all good news however, as advertised salaries are continuing to fall, following the downward trend in inflation. Annual advertised salaries dropped -0.4% this month to £36,946, a four-month consecutive fall and down from an annual high of £37,807 in June. UK advertised salaries are now at their lowest for six months, down -1.89% from April when they averaged £37,658. Yet, they are still higher than the same time last year, up +1.41%.

The number of jobseekers per vacancy has risen slightly to 1.5, with the metric staying rather consistent all year, hovering between 1.51 and 1.45. This is higher than last year’s figures, of 1.38, pointing to more people continuing to look for work across the UK.

Table 1: UK vacancies, jobseekers per vacancies and advertised UK salary

October 2023
September 2023
Monthly
Change
Annual change from October 2022
UK Vacancies
1,026,434
1,022,833
+0.35%
-5.08%
Jobseekers per Vacancy
1.5
1.49
+0.01
+0.12 (from 1.38)
Av. Advertised UK Salary
£36,946
£37,093
-0.4%
+1.41%

Retail and service sectors step up hiring

Jobs continue to fall in most sectors, but there has been positive growth in hiring for retail and service sectors. Retail job vacancies have increased +8.29% compared to September, with companies continuing to hire extra staff ahead of the Black Friday and Christmas shopping periods. There has also been an increase in Customer Service roles available (+2.5%), Hospitality & Catering (+0.8%), and Logistics & Warehouse (+4.35%).

Graduate job vacancies appear to be recovering from their dramatic fall earlier this year, rising +15.1% month-on-month to reach 26,771 graduate job openings in October. However, year-on-year, vacancies are still down -28.4%, demonstrating that it continues to be a tough job market for new graduates. Energy, Oil & Gas roles continue on a downward spiral, -3.92% compared to September and down -13.2% over the past six months, with Legal jobs suffering the biggest monthly fall (-6.56%).

The time to fill jobs metric has fallen to its lowest level this year, at 34.5 days on average. By sector, Voluntary jobs (28.7) and Admin and Teaching vacancies (both 31.1) are taking the shortest time to fill, rising to 41.4 days and 42.4 for Logistics & Warehouse and Travel respectively.