Job vacancies in the UK have fallen to less than 700,000 listings. This is the lowest figure in five years, continuing a downward trend with the least vacancies since the pandemic.
A report by job search site Adzuna revealed that job listings have fallen by 3% in January to 695,000, the lowest figure since January 2021. Graduate roles have dropped to below 10,000, for the first time since their records began in 2016.
This is a 16% drop from January 2025, with the sharpest drop coming in London. The highest searched jobs included labourers, healthcare support, lorry drivers and warehouse staff.
These figures come following the news of unemployment rates hitting 5.2%, the highest in almost 5 years, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
The evidence highlights the struggle for job opportunities in the UK, with more than two jobseekers per vacancy as reported by Adzuna.
This trend has particularly impacted young people aged between the ages of 18 to 24, where unemployment rose to 14% at the end of 2025. This is the highest it has been in five years. It contributes to concerns that Britain is slipping down the global league table for youth employment, where the UK has dropped to 27th.
Andrew Hunter, Co-founder of Adzuna said “January data shows hiring is getting close to pandemic-era levels, and graduate positions are at an all-time low, indicating the market is still far from stable”.
Many businesses have slowed their hiring process, citing cost-increasing measures in Chancellor Reeves’s last two budgets which increased the minimum wage and employer National Insurance contributions.
Since the start of 2025, 65,000 jobs have been lost with retail and wholesale sectors experiencing the highest decline of employees on payrolls according to ONS.
However, a positive for jobseekers remains because advertised job salaries increased by 7.7% annually, to £42,687.
Jobs in domestic and cleaning sectors also continue to keep outperforming the market by a significant margin, as stated by Hunter.
“Wages continue to rise steadily, outpacing inflation for another month and several key sectors are seeing strong growth. It’s encouraging to see areas such as teaching and domestic and cleaning continue to add jobs, showing that demand hasn’t disappeared entirely across the economy.”