Vacancies and jobs in the UK: September 2024

• Labour market overview
• Average weekly earnings in Great Britain
• Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information
• Employment in the UK
• Public sector employment, UK

• The estimated number of vacancies in the UK in June to August 2024 was 857,000, a decrease of 42,000 or 4.7% from March to May 2024.
• Vacancy numbers decreased on the quarter for the 26th consecutive period in June to August 2024, with vacancies decreasing in all 18 industry sectors.
• Total estimated vacancies were down by 143,000 (14.3%) in June to August 2024, from the level of a year ago, although they remained 61,000 (7.7%) above their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic January to March 2020 levels.
• The number of unemployed people per vacancy was 1.6 in May to July 2024, down from 1.7 in the previous quarter (February to April 2024).
• The estimated number of Workforce Jobs was up by 503,000 (1.4%) in June 2024, from the level of a year ago, to 37.1 million, with human health and social work activities showing the largest increase, up by 288,000 (6.0%).
• The total Workforce Jobs estimate decreased in June 2024 by 28,000 or 0.1% on the quarter, with a decrease of 92,000 (2.1%) in self-employment jobs and an increase of 62,000 (0.2%) in employee jobs.

The series of quarterly decreases in vacancy numbers continued in June to August 2024, reducing for the 26th consecutive period. The total number of vacancies has declined by an estimated 447,000 since its peak in March to May 2022.

The headline vacancy estimates are based on three-month averages, which naturally involve some time lag. Insights into trends in August 2024 are provided by two alternative data sources: our Dataset X06: Single month vacancies estimates (see Section 7: Data sources and quality), and the Online job advert estimates official statistics in development from Adzuna. Please note that caution is advised when viewing these alternative data sources, because the data are not seasonally adjusted or directly comparable.

The estimated total number of vacancies decreased by 4.7% from the previous quarter, declining in all of the 18 industry sectors, with real estate activities and administrative and support service activities declining the most by 15.8% and 15.6%, respectively.

The estimated number of vacancies decreased on the quarter by 42,000 to 857,000 in June to August 2024. This was the 26th consecutive quarterly fall. The largest decreases were in administrative and support service activities and human health and social work activities, which were down by 10,000 and 8,000 vacancies, respectively.

When comparing June to August 2024 with the same time last year, total vacancies decreased by 143,000 (14.3%), with declines in 16 of the 18 industry sectors. The industries that decreased the most were wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and human health and social work activities, which fell by a combined total of 56,000 vacancies.

The total estimated number of vacancies remains 61,000 (7.7%) above its January to March 2020 pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic level. The two industry sectors that have increased the most from their January to March 2020 levels are human health and social work activities, and professional, scientific and technical activities, which were up by an estimated 19,000 and 16,000 vacancies, respectively.

Seven industry sectors are currently below pre-coronavirus levels, with a combined decrease of 38,000 vacancies. These include wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, down the most by an estimated 23,000 vacancies.

The number of unemployed people per vacancy in May to July 2024 was 1.6, down from 1.7 in the previous quarter (February to April 2024).

Growth decreased in all industry size bands on the quarter and on the same period last year. The largest decrease on the quarter is 6.3% for businesses with 2,500 or more employees; they also had the largest decrease on the year at 17.4%. Vacancies in this size band are now 17,000 below their January to March 2020 pre-coronavirus level.

Workforce Jobs (WFJ) estimates are provided from various sources. Estimates of employee jobs in the private sector are taken from surveys relating to a reference date of 14 June 2024, whereas those of self-employment jobs are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which covers a three-month period from the start of May 2024 to July 2024. This is outlined in Section 7: Data sources and quality.

Workforce Jobs decreased by 28,000 (0.1%) on the quarter to June 2024 to 37.1 million, shown in Figure 4. This continues to be at historically high levels. Between March 2024 and June 2024, there was an increase in employee jobs of 62,000 (0.2%) and a decrease in self-employment jobs of 92,000 (2.1%), alongside a combined increase in government-supported trainees and HM armed forces of 3,000 (1.5%).

Comparing with the equivalent period last year, Workforce Jobs are up by 503,000 (1.4%) with employee jobs up by 386,000 (1.2%) and self-employment jobs up by 134,000 (3.3%) while government-supported trainees and HM armed forces are showing a combined fall of 16,000 (8.3%).

A further insight into the employee jobs component of Workforce Jobs can be found in the number of employees on payroll reported in Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, seasonally adjusted dataset.

Annually, growth in the Workforce Jobs estimates has varied, with 5 of the 20 industry sectors below June 2023 levels. The largest decrease in job numbers was in construction, at 108,000 (4.8%). However, most industries showed increases, with the largest rise from human health and social work activities, which was up by 288,000 (6.0%).

On the quarter, the number of Workforce Jobs decreased in 11 of the 20 industry sectors, contributing to a decrease of 28,000 (0.1%) in the total Workforce Jobs estimate. The largest decreases came from construction, down by 77,000 (3.5%), and other service activities, which was down by 48,000 (4.7%).

Vacancies

Vacancies are positions for which employers are actively seeking recruits from outside of their business or organisation. The estimates are based on our Vacancy Survey, a survey of employers designed to provide estimates of the stock of vacancies across the economy, excluding agriculture, forestry and fishing (a small sector for which the collection of estimates would not be practical). For more information, see Section 11: Vacancies in our A guide to labour market statistics methodology.

Jobs

A job is an activity performed for an employer or customer by a worker in exchange for payment, usually in cash, or in kind, or both. The number of jobs is not the same as the number of people in employment. This is because a person can have more than one job. The number of jobs is the sum of employee jobs from employer surveys, self-employment jobs from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), those in HM Forces and government-supported trainees. The number of people in employment is measured by the LFS. These estimates are available in our Employment in the UK releases. For more information, see Section 10: Jobs, in our A guide to labour market statistics methodology

A more detailed glossary is available.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in April 2022. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled “accredited official statistics”.

Important notes

Published data accompanying this release are presented as rounded figures. All changes presented in this bulletin are calculated from unrounded estimates, therefore users may calculate slightly different changes when using the accompanying data tables.

As stated on 5 February 2024 in our Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey (LFS) key indicators: 2024 article, from 13 February we have reinstated reweighted LFS estimates into our monthly publication. These LFS estimates are official statistics in development.

Reweighting does not address the volatility we have seen in recent periods and which we expect to see to some extent in the future, so we would advise caution when interpreting changes in headline rates and recommend using them as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside Workforce Jobs (WFJ), Claimant Count data and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) estimates.

As stated in our article published 18 July 2024, we are planning a further reweighting exercise, based on the population projections published in January 2024. We plan to introduce the reweighted LFS series into our Labour market publication by the end of 2024.

Making our published spreadsheets accessible

Following the Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidance on releasing statistics in spreadsheets we will be amending our published tables over the coming months to improve usability, accessibility and machine readability of our published statistics. To help users change to the new formats we will be publishing sample versions of a selection of our tables, and where practical, initially publish the tables in both the new and current formats. If you have any questions or comments, please email labour.market@ons.gov.uk.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Read more about how labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus pandemic in our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article.

For a comparison of our labour market data sources and the main differences, read our Comparison of labour market data sources methodology.

Sources

The data in this bulletin come from surveys of businesses. It is not feasible to survey every business in the UK, so these statistics are estimates based on samples, not precise figures.

Vacancies

Estimates of vacancies are obtained from the Vacancy Survey, a survey of employers. Adzuna Online job advert estimates are also published as part of our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators bulletins.

Jobs

Estimates of jobs are compiled from a number of sources, including Short-Term Employment Surveys (STES), the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Surveys (QPSES) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS). STES is a group of surveys that collect employment and turnover information from private sector businesses. In December of each year, the jobs estimates are "benchmarked" to the latest estimates from the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES).

The STES estimates are drawn for a specified date early in the last month of each calendar quarter. The March 2020 data were from 13 March 2020 before the start of coronavirus (COVID-19) social distancing measures.

For more information on how jobs data are measured, please see our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: April 2021 bulletin.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in the Vacancy Survey QMI and Workforce jobs QMI.

Sampling variability

The sampling variability of the three-month average vacancies level is plus or minus 1.3% of that level expressed as a coefficient of variation, giving a 95% confidence interval for estimates of approximately plus or minus 32,000.

The sampling variability of the three-month average vacancies level for a typical industrial sector is around plus or minus 6% of that level.

Information on the strengths and limitations of this bulletin are available in our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: April 2021 bulletin.