Vacancies and jobs in the UK: June 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

• Public sector employment, UK

• Vacancy estimates decreased on the quarter, with early estimates for March to May 2026 suggesting a decrease of 19,000 (2.6%) vacancies to 707,000, compared with December 2025 to February 2026; this is the lowest level since February to April 2021.

• Vacancy estimates decreased in 10 of the 18 industry sectors, and 4 of the 5 employment size bands compared with December 2025 to February 2026; the largest industry decrease was in professional, scientific and technical activities (down 8,000), and the largest size band decrease was for businesses with 1 to 9 employees (down 16,000).

• Total estimated vacancies were down by 31,000 (4.2%) in March to May 2026 from the level of a year ago, decreasing in 10 of the 18 industry sectors, and in 3 of the 5 employment size bands.

• There were 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy in February to April 2026; this ratio has remained at 2.5 since July to September 2025, after previously increasing quarter on quarter since July to September 2024.

• Early estimates suggest there were 36.8 million workforce jobs in the UK in March 2026; this is an increase of 256,000 (0.7%) from December 2025, with an increase of 177,000 (4.4%) in the self-employment jobs component, and an increase of 81,000 (0.3%) in the employee jobs component.

• The estimated number of workforce jobs was down by 98,000 (0.3%) in March 2026 compared with a year ago; this was caused by a decrease of 127,000 (2.9%) in the self-employment jobs component, and was partially offset by an increase of 30,000 (0.1%) in the employee jobs component.

The early estimate of the number of vacancies in the UK decreased by 19,000 (2.6%) to 707,000 in March to May 2026, compared with December 2025 to February 2026. This follows a period of broadly flat estimates between March to May 2025 and December 2025 to February 2026. This 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 31,000 (4.2%), with total estimated vacancies now 82,000 (10.4%) below their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic January to March 2020 level. The last time the estimated number of vacancies was 707,000 or fewer was in February to April 2021, when there were were 660,000 vacancies. Outside of the COVID-19 pandemic period, the last time there were 707,000 or fewer vacancies was in September to November 2014, when there were 703,000 vacancies.

The headline vacancy estimates are based on three-month averages, which naturally involve some time lag. We provided insights into trends in May 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", meaning that 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 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy in February to April 2026. The ratio has remained at 2.5 since July to September 2025, after previously increasing quarter on quarter since July to September 2024, and is up from 2.2 in the same period a year ago.

The estimated total number of vacancies decreased by 19,000 (2.6%) in March to May 2026 compared with December 2025 to February 2026, falling in 10 of the 18 industry sectors. The industries with the largest percentage decreases in vacancies were the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, down 25.2%, and real estate activities, down 13.4%. The largest volume decrease was in professional, scientific and technical activities (down 8,000 vacancies), followed by the accommodation and food service activities sector, and the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, both down 4,000 vacancies. Feedback from our Vacancy Survey suggests that some firms may not be recruiting because of economic uncertainty and increased labour costs.

Total vacancies decreased by 31,000 (4.2%) in March to May 2026, compared with the same period a year ago. There were declines in 10 of the 18 industry sectors. The industries with the largest annual percentage decreases in vacancies were real estate activities, down 28.1%, and arts, entertainment and recreation, down 25.2%. The wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles sector had the largest annual volume decrease, down 13,000 vacancies, followed by accommodation and food service activities, down 10,000 vacancies.

Of the 5 employment size bands, 4 saw decreases in the number of vacancies on the quarter to March to May 2026. The largest quarterly decrease was in businesses with 1 to 9 employees, which accounted for 16,000 of the overall 19,000 decrease in vacancies since December 2025 to February 2026. The only employment size band to show a quarterly increase was businesses with 2,500 or more employees, with an increase of 3,000 (1.4%) vacancies.

The number of vacancies decreased over the year in 3 out of 5 employment size bands. The largest decreases were for businesses with 10 to 49 employees, down 17,000 (14.9%) vacancies, and 1 to 9 employees, down 15,000 (13.3%) vacancies. Businesses with 2,500 or more employees showed an annual increase of 2,000 (0.9%) vacancies, and businesses with between 250 and 2,499 employees showed an annual increase of 1,000 (0.3%) vacancies.

We have undertaken additional analysis on our headline workforce jobs series as part of our quality assurance processes. Our analysis indicates mixed and emerging evidence of evolving seasonal patterns in both our headline employee jobs and self-employment jobs, although stronger in the latter. More information can be found in Section 7: Data sources and quality.

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 March 2026. Estimates of self-employment jobs are drawn from our Labour Force Survey (LFS), which covers a three-month period from the start of February 2026 to the end of April 2026.

Early estimates suggest there were 36.8 million WFJ in the UK in March 2026. This is a quarterly increase of 256,000 (0.7%) since December 2025. The quarterly increase was caused by an increase of 177,000 (4.4%) in self-employment jobs and 81,000 (0.3%) in employee jobs. Estimates of government-supported trainees decreased by 3,000 (5.7%) on the quarter and HM Forces were broadly flat on the quarter.

The estimated number of WFJ was down by 98,000 (0.3%) in March 2026 from the level of a year ago; this was caused by a decrease of 127,000 (2.9%) in the self-employment jobs component. However, there was an increase of 30,000 (0.1%) in the employee jobs component. The other components are broadly flat, with HM Forces up 1,000 (0.7%), and government-supported trainees down 2,000 (3.3%) over the year.

The number of WFJ increased in 16 of the 20 industry sectors on the quarter. The industries with the biggest percentage increase on the quarter were:

• people employed by households, up by 32.8%

• mining and quarrying, up by 7.3%

• agriculture, forestry and fishing, up by 5.1%

The industries with the largest volume increases on the quarter were human health and social work activities, up 61,000 (1.2%), and professional, scientific and technical activities up 43,000 (1.3%). There were increases in both the employee jobs and self-employment jobs in these sectors, however, there were larger increases in the self-employment component. On the quarter, there was an increase of 51,000 self-employment jobs in human health and social work activities, and 31,000 in professional, scientific and technical activities.

There was a decrease in the number of WFJ in 8 of the 20 industry sectors on the year. The industries with the biggest percentage annual decreases are the information and communication sector, down 3.6% and manufacturing, down 3.2%. The industries with the largest volume decrease in WFJ between March 2025 and March 2026 were wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which was down 86,000 (1.8%), and manufacturing, which was down 81,000 (3.2%). The fall in wholesale and retail trade is because of the self-employment jobs component, down 86,000, and the fall in manufacturing is because of the employee jobs component, down 58,000.

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 of 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, and activities of households as employers (small sectors for which the collection of estimates would not be practical). For more information, see Section 11: Vacancies of our Guide to labour market statistics methodology.

A more detailed glossary is available.

Important Note 

We have undertaken additional analysis on our headline workforce jobs series as part of our quality assurance and following the publication of our recent article How the ONS assesses statistical outputs for residual seasonality on gross domestic product (GDP). Our analysis indicates mixed and emerging evidence of evolving seasonal patterns in both our headline employee jobs and self-employment jobs, although stronger in the latter. This needs further investigation at a more disaggregated level. 

We are therefore bringing forward our annual seasonal adjustment review of workforce jobs data. We will provide an update in September 2026, alongside the next release of workforce jobs data. Until then, caution should be taken when looking at short-term changes in these series. 

Upcoming revisions to workforce jobs 

We aim to include revisions of estimates of workforce jobs back to the start of the data series in 1981 in our Vacancies and jobs in the UK bulletin, publishing on 15 September 2026. Revisions will result from our regular annual review of the seasonal adjustment parameters.

This is an annual process that usually takes place in December each year, however because of the mixed and emerging evidence of evolving seasonal patterns described above, we aim to bring our annual seasonal adjustment review forward.

More information is outlined in our Workforce jobs quality and methodology information (QMI) and Labour market statistics revisions policy (PDF, 36.7KB).

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 changes to vacancies

Within our VACS02: Vacancies by industry dataset, we publish vacancy ratios. These ratios are an estimate of the number of vacancies per 100 jobs, using employee jobs estimates from workforce jobs (WFJ) as the denominator. This denominator is calculated as an annual average of employee jobs for the latest available full calendar year, and is only updated when the next full calendar year becomes available.

There are several limitations to this method, including any recent changes in ratios being attributable to vacancies data only, and a delay in revisions to WFJ feeding through to the denominators and, therefore, the ratios.

To overcome this, we have been investigating alternative methods, both to bring our ratios in-line with international standards, and to ensure the ratio is fit-for-purpose by using the most recent estimates of employee jobs.

Ahead of our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: September 2026 bulletin, we plan to publish our new ratio estimates with a methods note, alongside our usual publication. This is to allow users to familiarise themselves with these new estimates. From September 2026 onwards, we plan to move to these new ratios as our headline estimate of vacancies ratios.

Latest changes to workforce jobs

Up until December 2025, employee jobs data for the private sector were 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 three surveys was upgraded and went live throughout Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025. Alongside this, employment questions have been consolidated into a single questionnaire under QBS; they were removed from MBS and CON from December 2025. Businesses in sectors previously sampled only in MBS or CON have moved into an expanded QBS universe, which samples approximately 37,000 businesses.

The core QBS methodology remains unchanged, but the sample is larger and unified. Forced inclusions (large businesses that must be included) will only apply where required for QBS. For the remaining sample, there will be an overlap of around 50% between the old MBS and CON samples, and the new QBS sample in December 2025. There will be full overlap for forced inclusions to ensure a smooth transition. In March 2026, the forced inclusions in the overlap will be withdrawn and replaced by newly sampled businesses, but the forced inclusions for large businesses will remain. Normal QBS rotation will resume from June 2026.

There has been no impact from the platform upgrade itself, owing to methods remaining consistent. However, sampling a large number of new businesses has affected response rates and the number of responses available for imputation link factors.

We have worked hard with our survey teams to reduce the impact of these changes, supporting the onboarding of newly selected businesses and prioritising follow-up where needed. However, there are small known biases between newly sampled and existing businesses within the existing rotation, construction, and imputation methods. These biases have been amplified during this period because of the volume of newly sampled businesses.

More information is available in our Workforce jobs in the UK quality and methods guide, which was published on 19 March 2026.

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

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.

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, which is a survey of employers.

Estimates of jobs are compiled from a number of sources, including the Quarterly Business Survey (QBS), the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Surveys (QPSES), and the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

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

A comparison of our labour market data sources and the main differences is available in our Comparison of labour market data sources methodology.

Response Rates

The Vacancy Survey response rate was 75.4% in May 2026.

The QBS response rate was 71.8% in March 2026.

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.