New UK graduates are facing one of the toughest job markets in recent years, with annual graduate roles down -32.13% in September 2023 compared to the year before, according to the UK Job Market Report by job search engine Adzuna.

September saw 23,264 advertised job vacancies for graduates, falling -0.92% compared to August’s figures (23,480) and significantly lower than 34,277 a year ago. This is against a backdrop of falling vacancies across the board, with three-quarters of the sectors covered by Adzuna’s data reporting a slowdown in hiring, indicating potential cooling in the labour market.

Across all sectors, UK vacancies fell -1.57% in September to 1,022,833, in the third consecutive monthly decline. However, vacancies are down just -6.6% compared to the same time last year. There were 1.51 jobseekers per vacancy, compared to 1.47 in August and the highest it’s been since April 2023, leading to greater competition for roles.

In the face of increasing competition for roles, more employers are choosing not to advertise salaries. Only 47.8% of ads disclosed salary details last month – the lowest since Adzuna’s records began in April 2016. Advertised salaries dropped again to £37,093 in September, down -1.6% on August. Year-on-year, average wages are still +1.7% higher than they were in September 2022 (£36,473).

Teaching roles continue to dominate

Out of the 29 sectors in Adzuna’s job database, 23 saw drops in vacancies month-on-month in September with the energy sector and trade and construction seeing the biggest falls. Energy saw vacancies plummet -7% month-on-month, with Trade & Construction falling -6.32%.
Teaching vacancies, which have been falling consistently month-on-month since June, fell again in September, by a further -3.3%. However, the number of vacancies is still +43% higher than at the same time last year, and teaching remains the largest recruitment sector with almost 110,000 positions advertised last month. Compared to last year, there were 30% more teaching roles on offer in the UK in September, and salaries were up +9.04% compared to 2022. This is the third highest annual salary increase, behind Social Work (+10.7%) and Property jobs (+9.25%).
To put the impact of teaching roles into perspective, September saw more vacancies for teachers than all of the Consultancy, Creative & Design, Domestic Help & Cleaning, Energy, Oil & Gas, HR & Recruitment, Legal, Maintenance, Manufacturing, Property and Travel sectors combined.
The resurging hospitality and travel sectors are actively recruiting with Travel seeing the greatest month-on-month increase in vacancies at +11.1% to 4,941 advertised vacancies in September. Travel vacancies are up +22% in the past six months. Hospitality vacancies were up +5.3% in September and +16% since Spring, with 81,855 advertised positions on offer.
The time to fill vacancies has continued to slow to 34.6 days, which is on par with the quickest times seen in March. This varies across sectors, however. Admin roles continue to be the fastest to fill (31 days) while Energy, Oil & Gas roles are the slowest (41 days).