The UK labour market is struggling with one of the steepest falls in job vacancies on record. In August, the available positions dropped to 846,567. This is 2.1% lower than July and 1.3% lower than the same month last year. Now as competition for available jobs continues to be fierce, new data shows a persistently difficult landscape for graduates and young job seekers alike.
Data from Adzuna show that the average days taken to recruit a role increased to 37.3 days in August. That’s nearly a whole day more than July’s 36.3-day average. This trend, along with the time-to-fill data, indicates that employers are dragging out hiring decisions, especially as the job market cools.
For recent graduates, the picture is equally as grim. For them, the job market is more challenging now than at any time since 2018. Advertised vacancies that specifically relate to graduate roles dropped by 8% in August, bringing the total to just 14,162 graduate level positions. That’s more than a third decrease from late this same month last year. This drop contributes to the hardships workers encounter while looking for low skilled occupations.
The most recent statistics paint a contradictory picture. In the three months up to June 2025, the total of people younger than 25 not in employment, education or training (the so-called Neets) jumped by 948,000. That figure is still just a hair under last year’s high watermark of 971,000. It’s still a lot higher than the pre-pandemic 2019 average, which was under 800,000.
As the race heats up, there is currently an average of 3.36 candidates per available post in most areas of the UK. The national average for number of job seekers per vacancy is up from 1.93 to 2. This reversal sheds light on the growing difficulty to gain meaningful employment.
Unemployment rates have reached a four-year juncture of 4.7%. This increase comes amid growing concerns about the state of the job market today. The lack of opportunities and rising competition mark a first tectonic shake that threatens to rattle almost every field.
Andrew Hunted, co-founder of Adzuna, commented on the evolving nature of the job market:
“The labour market is uneven and increasingly shaped by a mix of sector-specific swings and the growing role of AI within the UK labour market.”
While these concerns are valid, experts say this troubling trend points more to a disappearing hot labor market, not a total wreck.
“This hints at a labour market that is cooling, not collapsing.” – Adzuna
This data both shows how the labor market mirrors larger trends within the economy and buttresses the need for jobseekers to be flexible, agile, and increasingly resilient. Future generations of workers, too, will be confronted with a new reality defined by evolving demands and increasing competition.