Vacancies and jobs in the UK: March 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

• The estimated number of vacancies in the UK has remained broadly flat across recent periods; early estimates in December 2025 to February 2026 suggest a decrease of 6,000 (0.8%) to 721,000, compared with September to November 2025.

• Total estimated vacancies were down by 76,000 (9.5%) in December 2025 to February 2026 from the level of a year ago, decreasing in 15 of the 18 industry sectors.

• There were 2.6 unemployed people per vacancy in November 2025 to January 2026; this is up from 2.5 in the previous quarter (August to October 2025) and up from 1.9 in November 2024 to January 2025.

• Early estimates suggest there were 36.6 million workforce jobs in the UK in December 2025; this is an increase of 33,000 (0.1%) from September 2025, with an increase of 60,000 (0.2%) in the employee jobs component and decrease of 28,000 (0.7%) in the self-employment jobs component.

• The estimated number of workforce jobs was down by 266,000 (0.7%) in December 2025 from the level of a year ago; this is caused by a decrease of 242,000 (5.6%) in the self-employment jobs component and a decrease of 25,000 (0.1%) in the employee jobs component.

The early estimate of the number of vacancies in the UK decreased by 6,000 (0.8%) to 721,000 in December 2025 to February 2026, compared with September to November 2025. Though there was a decrease, estimates have remained broadly flat since March to May 2025 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 76,000 (9.5%). Total estimated vacancies are now 74,000 (9.3%) 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 February 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 November 2025 to January 2026. This is up from 2.5 in the previous quarter (August to October 2025), and up from 1.9 in the same period a year ago.

The estimated total number of vacancies decreased by 6,000 (0.8%) in December 2025 to February 2026 compared with September to November 2025, falling in 8 of the 18 industry sectors. The two industries with the largest percentage decrease in vacancies were water supply, sewerage, waste and remediation activities, down 11.4%, and construction, down 10.6%. The three industries with the largest volume decrease in vacancies were the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motor-cycles sector, down 7,000, and accommodation and food service activities, and construction, which were both down 3,000 vacancies.

Total vacancies decreased by 76,000 (9.5%) in December 2025 to February 2026 compared with the same period a year ago. There were declines in 15 of the 18 industry sectors. The industries with the largest percentage decrease in vacancies were construction, down 40.4%, and mining and quarrying, down 20.0%.

Two of the five industry size bands saw increases in the number of vacancies on the quarter. The largest quarterly increases in vacancies were in businesses with 250 to 2,499 employees and 2,500 or more employees, which were both up 3,000 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 22,000 vacancies.

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 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 workforce jobs

Up until December 2025, employee jobs data for the private sector was 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.

Upcoming Revisions

We aim to include revisions of estimates of vacancies back to the start of the data series in 2001 in our next Vacancies and jobs in the UK bulletin, publishing on 21 April 2026. Revisions will result from a review of the seasonal adjustment parameters, updates to our Northern Ireland ratio adjustment, and from taking on updated workforce jobs data in the denominator of our vacancies per 100 employee jobs ratios. This is an annual process, as outlined in our Vacancy Survey Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report.

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.

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 pandemic

More information about how labour market data sources are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is available in our Coronavirus and the effects on UK labour market statistics article.

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

Response Rates

The Vacancy Survey response rate was 77.1% in February 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.