UK graduate vacancies at 7,826, down 43% and the fewest in a decade
Adzuna counted 7,826 UK graduate openings in September, 43% fewer than a year earlier and the lowest since 2016. Overall vacancies fell 11.9% to 728,037, with 2.33 jobseekers per advertised role.
Article processed by Artificial Intelligence
Advertised vacancies for UK graduates fell to 7,826 in September, down 43% from 13,754 a year earlier. That is the lowest count since jobs site Adzuna started tracking graduate openings in 2016. At the market's peak in mid-2017 there were more than 55,000 graduate positions.
The squeeze is not limited to entry-level roles. Total advertised vacancies fell to 728,037 in September, down 11.9% year on year and 7.2% from August. There are now 2.33 jobseekers for every advertised job, the most competition in over two years, Adzuna said.
What is driving it
Two causes stand out in the reporting. More than half of hiring managers surveyed by recruiter Reed said AI was leading to fewer job opportunities. Routine tasks in graduate professions such as accountancy and law are the ones most exposed.
The CBI points to the rising cost of employing staff. Minimum wage increases above inflation and the £25bn rise in employer national insurance have pushed up the price of hiring, and young workers are often the first to be cut when budgets tighten.
Sector data backs the pressure on early-career roles. Listings in logistics and warehouse jobs dropped 23% year on year in September, one of the steepest declines in the Adzuna report.
Pay and transparency
The average advertised salary for graduate roles held steady at around £27,700. Average advertised pay across all jobs was £43,780, up 3.2% on the year. Official figures show regular pay growth of about 4.9% in the year to August, so advertised salaries are rising more slowly than pay in existing jobs.
One shift matters for anyone applying. In September, 50.99% of UK job adverts on Adzuna included a salary. It was the first month on record in which most roles disclosed pay. A government consultation on making salary disclosure mandatory closes within days.
Why it matters
For jobseekers, the market has clearly moved in favour of employers. With more than two candidates per vacancy, hiring managers can be selective and slower to respond. Applications need to be sharper, and graduates in particular should widen their search beyond the shrinking pool of formal graduate schemes.
For employers, the shortage of openings is not the same as a shortage of talent. Firms that are still hiring can choose from a strong field, but the pipeline effect is worth watching. A record 262,820 people started university this autumn, so the queue for graduate roles will only get longer.
What to watch next
The official data points the same way. The ONS claimant count for September was 1,698,450, up 2.5% year on year, and it estimated total vacancies at around 818,000 over the three months to September, down from over a million a year earlier.
Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter said the September figures were sobering and that the balance of power in hiring had shifted further towards employers. Watch the outcome of the salary disclosure consultation, and the October vacancy data, to see whether the graduate count sets another record low.
Sources