Vacancies and jobs in the UK: May 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

• Vacancy estimates decreased on the quarter, with early estimates for February to April 2026 suggesting a decrease of 28,000 (3.9%) vacancies to 705,000, compared with November 2025 to January 2026; this is the lowest level of vacancies since February to April 2021.

• Vacancies estimates decreased in 11 of the 18 industry sectors and 4 of the 5 employment size bands compared with November 2025 to January 2026; the largest industry decrease was in Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles (down 7,000) and the largest size band decrease was for businesses with 1 to 9 employees (down 19,000).

• Total estimated vacancies were down by 54,000 (7.1%) in February to April 2026 from the level of a year ago, decreasing in 13 of the 18 industry sectors and in 4 of the 5 employment size bands.

• There were 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy in January to March 2026; this has remained unchanged since July to September 2025, after previously increasing quarter on quarter since July to September 2024.

The early estimate of the number of vacancies in the UK decreased by 28,000 (3.9%) to 705,000 in February to April 2026, compared with November 2025 to January 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 54,000 (7.1%), with total estimated vacancies now 83,000 (10.6%) below their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic January to March 2020 level. The last time the estimated number of vacancies was 705,000 or fewer was in February to April 2021, when they were 660,000. Outside of the coronavirus pandemic period, the last time there were fewer than 705,000 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 April 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 January to March 2026. This is unchanged from the previous quarter (October to December 2025), and up from 2.1 in the same period a year ago. The ratio has remained at 2.5 since July to September 2025, after previously increasing quarter on quarter since July to September 2024.

The estimated total number of vacancies decreased by 28,000 (3.9%) in February to April 2026 compared with November 2025 to January 2026, falling in 11 of the 18 industry sectors. The industries with the largest percentage decreases in vacancies were the Arts, entertainment and recreation sector, down 24.0%, and Real estate activities, down 19.7%.

This quarter, we saw the largest level decreases in the UK's lowest paying sectors; Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles (down 7,000), the Accommodation and food service activities sector (down 6,000) and the Arts, entertainment and recreation sector (down 4,000). Feedback from our Vacancy Survey suggests that some firms may not be recruiting because of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Total vacancies decreased by 54,000 (7.1%) in February to April 2026, compared with the same period a year ago. There were declines in 13 of the 18 industry sectors. The industries with the largest annual percentage decreases in vacancies were the Arts, entertainment and recreation sector, down 29.1%, Real estate activities, down 26.3%, and Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, down 22.0%. The Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles sector had the largest annual volume decrease, down 18,000 vacancies.

Of the 5 employment size bands, 4 saw decreases in the number of vacancies on the quarter to February to April 2026. The largest quarterly decrease was in businesses with 1 to 9 employees, which accounted for 19,000 of the overall 28,000 decrease in vacancies since November 2025 to January 2026. The only employment size band to show a quarterly increase was businesses with 2,500 or more employees, with a slight increase of 1,000 (0.4%) vacancies.

The number of vacancies decreased over the year in 4 out of 5 employment size bands. The largest decreases were for businesses with 10 to 49 employees, down 26,000 (21.1%) vacancies, and 1 to 9 employees, down 21,000 (17.6%) vacancies. Businesses with between 250 and 2,499 employees displayed a slight annual increase of 1,000 (0.8%) vacancies.

Workforce jobs (WFJ) estimates are provided by various sources, our latest estimates for December 2025 were published in March 2026. Estimates of employee jobs in the private sector are from business surveys with a reference date of 12 December 2025. Estimates of self-employment jobs are drawn from our Labour Force Survey (LFS), which covers a three-month period from the start of November 2025 to the end of January 2026.

Early estimates suggest there were 36.6 million WFJ in the UK in December 2025. This is a quarterly increase of 33,000 (0.1%) since September 2025. The quarterly increase was caused by an increase of 60,000 (0.2%) in employee jobs. However, there was a decrease of 28,000 (0.7%) in self-employment jobs. Estimates of government-supported trainees and HM Forces were broadly flat on the quarter.

The estimated number of WFJ was down by 266,000 (0.7%) in December 2025 from the level of a year ago; this was caused by decreases of 242,000 (5.6%) in the self-employment jobs component and 25,000 (0.1%) in the employee jobs component. The other components are broadly flat, with HM Forces up 1,000 (0.8%), and government-supported trainees down 1,000 (2.0%) over the year.

The number of WFJ increased in 11 of the 20 industry sectors on the quarter. The industries with the biggest percentage increase on the quarter are construction, up 2.9%, and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, up 2.0%. The industries with the largest volume increases on the quarter were construction, up 65,000 (2.9%), and administrative and support service activities, up 42,000 (1.4%).

There was a decrease in WFJ in 12 of the 20 industry sectors on the year. The industry with the largest annual decrease in WFJ was financial and insurance activities, which was down 78,000 (6.6%) between December 2024 and December 2025.

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, 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 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".

Latest changes to vacancies

In June 2025, we published the ONS Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics. In this report, we set out our intentions to improve the foundations of Business Surveys including sampling, collection, and processing of our surveys. We have now completed a full sample review of the Vacancy Survey, a survey of employers designed to provide estimates of the stock of vacancies across the economy. We made the recommended changes in April 2026. This means that this Vacancies and jobs in the UK: May 2026 bulletin includes the first data collected since those changes were introduced.

The changes have not affected the overall results. However, in some areas we have added more new businesses to the survey, which could slightly affect response rates. To minimise any impact, we have worked closely with our survey teams to support new businesses joining the survey, and to follow up where responses are missing.

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, that 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 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 74.8% in April 2026.

The Quarterly Business Survey response rate was 71.5% in December 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.