Vacancies and jobs in the UK: February 2026

• 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

• The estimated number of vacancies in the UK has remained broadly flat across recent periods; early estimates in November 2025 to January 2026 suggest a small increase of 2,000 (0.3%) to 726,000, compared with August to October 2025.

• Total estimated vacancies were down by 73,000 (9.2%) in November 2025 to January 2026 from the level of a year ago, decreasing in 14 of the 18 industry sectors.

• There were 2.6 unemployed people per vacancy in October to December 2025; this is up from 2.5 in the previous quarter (July to September 2025) and up from 1.9 in October to December 2024.

The early estimate of the number of vacancies in the UK increased by 2,000 (0.3%) to 726,000 in November 2025 to January 2026, compared with August to October 2025. Though there was a small increase, estimates have remained broadly flat across recent periods and the change remains within our confidence interval for estimates of approximately plus or minus 32,000 vacancies (see Section 7: Data sources and quality).

On the year, vacancies have decreased by 73,000 (9.2%). Total estimated vacancies are now 69,000 (8.7%) 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 January 2026 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.

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.

There were 2.6 unemployed people per vacancy in October to December 2025. This is up from 2.5 in the previous quarter (July to September 2025), and up from 1.9 in the same period a year ago. The last time the number of unemployed people per vacancy was 2.6 or more (excluding the pandemic period) was in November 2014 to January 2015.

The estimated total number of vacancies increased by 2,000 (0.3%) in November 2025 to January 2026 compared with August to October 2025, rising in 7 of the 18 industry sectors. The industry with the largest percentage increase in vacancies was in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, which grew by 12.3%. The industries with the largest volume increase in vacancies was the manufacturing sector and the transport and storage sector, both increasing by 4,000 vacancies.

Total vacancies decreased by 73,000 (9.2%) in November 2025 to January 2026 compared with the same period a year ago. There were declines in 14 of the 18 industry sectors. The industries with the largest percentage decrease in vacancies were construction (down 32.4%), and mining and quarrying (down 26.7%).

Two of the five industry size bands saw increases in the number of vacancies on the quarter. The largest quarterly increase in vacancies was in businesses with 2,500 or more employees, which was up 8,000 (3.5%) vacancies.

The number of vacancies decreased over the year in all industry size bands. The largest decrease in vacancies was for businesses with 1 to 9 employees and 10 to 49 employees, which both decreased by 18,000 vacancies.

Our workforce jobs (WFJ) estimates are published every three months. Our latest estimates for September 2025 were published in December 2025. WFJ estimates are provided from various sources, which are outlined in Section 7: Data sources and quality.

In December of each year, regular adjustments are made to WFJ estimates to improve quality and coherence with other Office for National Statistics (ONS) business surveys, resulting in revisions to the series. Adjustments include:

•  benchmarking the short-term employee jobs series to the latest estimates from the annual Business Register and Employment Survey

•  incorporating revisions to Public Sector Employment estimates, Northern Ireland employee jobs estimates, government-supported trainees (GSTs) administrative data, and Short-Term Employment Surveys estimates 

• changes to seasonal parameters following a seasonal adjustment review

More information can be found in our Revisions to workforce jobs, UK: December 2025 bulletin.

The estimated number of WFJ decreased on the quarter to 36.6 million in the UK in September 2025. This is a quarterly fall of 116,000 (0.3%) since June 2025. The quarterly decrease was largely caused by a decrease of 120,000 (2.9%) in self-employment jobs. There was also a fall of 15,000 (0.0%) in employee jobs. However, there were small increases of 18,000 (51.7%) in GSTs and 1,000 (0.6%) in HM Forces jobs.

The estimated number of WFJ was down by 115,000 (0.3%) in September 2025 compared with a year ago. This is caused by a decrease of 201,000 (4.7%) in the self-employment jobs component. The other components are all up on the year, with employee jobs up 75,000 (0.2%), HM Forces up 1,000 (0.4%), and GSTs up 10,000 (24.5%).

The number of WFJ decreased in 9 of the 20 industry sectors on the quarter. The industry with the largest volume decrease on the quarter was administrative and support service activities, which fell by 36,000 (1.2%) since June 2025. The industry with the largest percentage decrease on the quarter was other service activities, which fell by 27,000 (2.8%).

Half of all industries saw a decrease in WFJ on the year. The industry with the largest annual decrease in WFJ was wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which was down 94,000 (2.0%) between September 2024 and September 2025. The industry with the largest percentage decrease on the year was financial and insurance activities, which fell by 41,000 (3.6%).

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. 

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.

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".

Upcoming data collection changes in workforce jobs

Currently, employee job data for the private sector is collected through three surveys: the Monthly Business Survey (MBS), Quarterly Business Survey (QBS), and Construction Survey (CON).

To improve and streamline processes, the data collection platform for these surveys has been upgraded and will go live during Quarter 4 2025. Alongside this, employment questions will be consolidated into a single questionnaire under QBS and will be removed from MBS and CON from December 2025. Businesses previously sampled only in MBS or CON will move into an expanded QBS sample of about 38,000 businesses.

The core QBS methodology remains unchanged, but the sample will be larger and unified. Forced inclusions (large businesses that must be included) will only apply where required for QBS. There will be an overlap of around 50% between the old and new samples in December 2025, with full overlap for forced inclusions to ensure a smooth transition. Normal QBS rotation will also resume from March 2026.

We do not expect any impact from the platform upgrade itself. However, adding more new businesses could affect response rates and data linkage. To reduce this risk, we will work closely with survey teams to support onboarding and prioritise follow-up where needed.

The first set of data following this implementation will be published in March 2026. We aim to share more detailed analysis alongside the release and will also update our Workforce Jobs quality and methodology information (QMI) with the relevant information.

Discontinuities in workforce jobs

Read more about discontinuities in workforce jobs in Section 7: Data sources and quality of our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: November 2025 bulletin.

Rounding and revisions

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.

In December of each year, regular adjustments are made to workforce jobs (WFJ) estimates to improve quality and coherence with other Office for National Statistics (ONS) business surveys, resulting in revisions to the series. Adjustments include benchmarking the short-term employee jobs series to the latest estimates from the annual Business Register and Employment Survey, incorporating revisions to Public Sector Employment estimates, Northern Ireland employee jobs estimates, government-supported trainees (GSTs) administrative data, and Short-Term Employment Surveys estimates, and changes to seasonal parameters following a seasonal adjustment review. More information can be found in our Revisions to workforce jobs, UK: December 2025 article and our Labour market statistics revisions policy (PDF, 36.7KB).

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, we will 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.

Estimates of vacancies are obtained from our Vacancy Survey, a survey of employers.

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).

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

Response Rates

The Vacancy Survey response rate was 78.3% in January 2026.

The combined response rate across the Short-Term Employment Surveys was 76.3% in September 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.

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