UK job vacancies drop almost 20pc despite economic growth

The UK job market saw a downturn in June, with job vacancies plummeting by almost a fifth - 19.49% - according to fresh data on Monday, suggesting that recent economic growth had not yet translated into hiring.

According to the latest UK job market report from job database operator Adzuna, vacancies decreased despite a bump in economic performance recorded in May.

The number of jobseekers continued to rise, with 1.95 people vying for every job vacancy, up from 1.91 in May - the highest ratio in three years.

However, there were promising signs as professional services firms and the creative sector were increasing hiring, and the IT sector showed growth for the first time since 2023.

Average advertised salaries saw a slight increase in June to £38,843, a 0.2% rise from May and a 2.7% increase from the prior year.

Despite that, tracking salaries had become challenging due to a decline in salary transparency, with Adzuna reporting that 47.7% of job adverts included salary information, down from 49.5% in May - the lowest figure since it began tracking the metric in 2016.

Regionally, London experienced a relatively small annual salary increase of 1.5%, although that still beat South East England at 1.4%, Northern Ireland at 1.3%, and Wales at 0.7%.

The East Midlands led salary growth with a 5.5% increase from last year, bringing the average salary to £36,195, while London's average salary in June stood at £44,867.

Cambridge emerged as the top city for job hunters with the lowest ratio of job seekers to vacancies at 0.35, followed by Guildford at 0.52 and Exeter at 0.64.

In terms of industry performance, the legal sector saw the highest growth in hiring at 8.5%, whereas the admin sector experienced a 5% decline, healthcare fell by 4.2%, and the travel industry dropped by 3.2%.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.