Vacancies and jobs in the UK: September 2025

• Labour market overview, UK

• Average weekly earnings in Great Britain

• Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK

• Employment in the UK

• Public sector employment, UK

• The estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell by 10,000 (1.4%) on the quarter, to 728,000 in June to August 2025.

• This is the 38th consecutive period where vacancy numbers have dropped compared with the previous three months, with vacancies decreasing in half of the 18 industry sectors.

• Total estimated vacancies were down by 119,000 (14.0%) in June to August 2025 from the level of a year ago, and are 67,000 (8.4%) below their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) January to March 2020 level.

• The number of unemployed people per vacancy was 2.3 in May to July 2025; this is up from 2.2 in the previous quarter (February to April 2025).

• The estimated number of workforce jobs in the UK was 36.8 million in June 2025; this is a decrease of 182,000 (0.5%) from March 2025, with decreases of 3,000 (0.0%) in the employee jobs component and 159,000 (3.7%) in the self-employment jobs component.

• The estimated number of workforce jobs was up by 139,000 (0.4%) in June 2025 from the level of a year ago; human health and social work activities had the largest increase of 68,000 (1.3%).

The estimated number of vacancies fell by 10,000 (1.4%) to 728,000 in June to August 2025. Vacancy numbers have now dropped compared with the previous three months for more than three years. The total number of vacancies has decreased by an estimated 571,000 since its peak in March to May 2022.

Total estimated vacancies are now 67,000 (8.4%) below their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic January to March 2020 level.

The headline vacancy estimates are based on three-month averages, which naturally involve some time lag. We provided insights into trends in August 2025 in our Dataset X06: Single month vacancies estimates (see Section 7: Data sources and quality). We advise caution when comparing data sources because the single-month data are not seasonally adjusted.

Further insights are provided in our Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2020), UK dataset, which includes official statistics in development sourced from Textkernel data. These estimates will be updated regularly as part of our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators bulletins. We advise caution when using these alternative data sources because the data are not seasonally adjusted or directly comparable.

The unemployment-to-vacancy ratio is a measure of labour market tightness. It shows how many unemployed people there are for each available unfilled job. An increase in the unemployment-to-vacancy ratio implies that the labour market is less tight, as there are more available workers to fill those vacant jobs.

The number of unemployed people per vacancy was 2.3 in May to July 2025. This is up from 2.2 in the previous quarter (February to April 2025), and up from 1.7 in the same period a year ago. The recent quarterly increase is because of the decline of vacancies and an increase in unemployment in the latest quarter.

The estimated total number of vacancies decreased by 10,000 (1.4%) from the previous quarter, falling in 9 out of the 18 industry sectors. The largest percentage decrease in vacancies was 14.1% in real estate activities. The largest volume decrease in vacancies was in the human health and social work activities sector, which fell by 6,000. This was followed by wholesale and retail trade, which fell by 5,000 vacancies.

Total vacancies decreased by 119,000 (14.0%) when comparing June to August 2025 with the same period last year. There were declines in 16 of the 18 industry sectors. The industry with the largest percentage decrease in vacancies was construction, which was down by 24.6%.

The total estimated number of vacancies is 67,000 (8.4%) below its January to March 2020 pre-pandemic level. There are 12 industry sectors where the latest vacancies estimates are below pre-pandemic levels (by a combined total of 92,000 vacancies). The largest level decrease, relative to pre-pandemic levels, is in wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles, which has 36,000 (27.6%) fewer vacancies than its pre-pandemic level.

Three of the five industry size bands saw decreases in the estimated number of vacancies on the quarter. The largest quarterly decrease in vacancies was in businesses with 2,500 or more employees, which was down 8,000 (3.4%) vacancies.

The estimated number of vacancies decreased over the year in all industry size bands. The largest percentage decrease in vacancies was for businesses with one to nine employees, which decreased by 25,000 (18.3%).

Workforce jobs (WFJ) estimates are provided by various sources. Estimates of employee jobs in the private sector are from business surveys with a reference date of 13 June 2025. Estimates of self-employment jobs are drawn from our Labour Force Survey (LFS), which covers a three-month period from the start of May to the end of July 2025.

The estimated number of WFJ decreased to 36.8 million in the UK in June 2025. This is a quarterly fall of 182,000 (0.5%) since March 2025. The quarterly decrease was largely caused by a decrease of 159,000 (3.7%) in self-employment jobs. There was also a fall of 3,000 (0.0%) in employee jobs, a fall of 19,000 (36.5%) in government-supported trainees, and a fall in HM Forces jobs of 1,000 (0.6%).

The estimated number of WFJ increased on the year by 139,000 (0.4%). They are 1.2 million (3.5%) above their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic March 2020 level.

The number of workforce jobs decreased in 15 of the 20 industry sectors on the quarter. The industry with the largest volume decrease was wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles. This was down 50,000 (1.1%) since March 2025.

Most industries saw an increase in workforce jobs on the year. There were increases in estimates across 12 of the 20 industry sectors between June 2024 and June 2025. The industry with the largest annual increase in workforce jobs was human health and social work activities, which was up by 68,000 (1.3%) since June 2024.

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 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 bulletins. For more information, see Section 10: Jobs in our 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".

Revisions to workforce jobs

In December each year, the workforce jobs estimates are "benchmarked" to the latest estimates from our Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES). Revisions caused by benchmarking will be implemented in our Vacancies and jobs in the UK bulletin, publishing on 16 December 2025. We aim to include revisions of our estimates to workforce jobs back to September 2023. This is an annual process that usually takes place in December each year. We also aim to include revisions of estimates of workforce jobs back to the start of the data series, as a result of our regular annual review of the seasonal adjustment parameters. Both these processes are outlined in our Workforce jobs quality and methodology information (QMI).

Alongside our Vacancies and jobs in the UK December bulletin, we aim to update our annual Revisions to workforce jobs, UK article to provide further information on these regular annual adjustments. More information is outlined in our Labour market statistics revisions policy (PDF, 36.7KB).

Discontinuities in workforce jobs

We have reinstated reweighted LFS estimates into our monthly publication from 17 December 2024, as stated on 3 December 2024 in our Impact of reweighting on LFS key indicators: December 2024 article. The reweighting exercise creates a discontinuity in total workforce jobs, employee jobs, and self-employment jobs between December 2018 and March 2019, where there will be a step change. Users should avoid making comparisons with estimates from before March 2019.

Ongoing challenges with response rates and levels mean that LFS-based labour market statistics will be badged as official statistics in development. We advise caution when using the data, until further review. For more information please see Section 11: Data sources and quality in our Employment in the UK: June 2025 bulletin.

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 our accompanying data tables.

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 the 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) pandemic

Read more about how labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) 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 our Vacancy Survey, a survey of employers.

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

The Vacancy Survey response rate was 78.2% in July 2025.

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 each year, the jobs estimates are "benchmarked" to the latest estimates from the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES). More information on the reconciliation of jobs estimates is available in our Reconciliation ofestimates of jobs, UK: April 2025 article . In September 2025, we updated our X03: Reconciliation of estimates of employment and jobs dataset to reflect the latest estimates.

Estimates of employee jobs in the private sector are from business surveys with a reference date of 13 June 2025. Estimates drawn from our Labour Force Survey (LFS), which covers a three-month period from the start of May to the end of July 2025.

The March 2020 data were drawn from 13 March 2020, before the start of pandemic social distancing measures. Therefore, all pre-pandemic comparisons are drawn against March 2020.

For more information on how jobs data are measured, please see Section 7: Measuring the data of 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 our Workforce jobs QMI.

The combined response rate across the Short-Term Employment Surveys was 76.6% in June 2025.

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 Section 8: Strengths and limitations of our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: April 2021 bulletin.