Government · UK · Office for National Statistics
UK Job Vacancies Fall to 702,000, Lowest Since 2021
UK job vacancies fell to 702,000 in the three months to August 2026, the lowest level since early 2021. Businesses with 1 to 9 employees were the single biggest contributor, and the ONS links their pullback to rising labour costs.
Source published Summarised
Key findings at a glance
- 702,000 estimated UK vacancies in June to August 2026, the lowest level since February to April 2021
- 4.9% the UK unemployment rate for May to July 2026, up 0.2 percentage points on the year
- 2.5 unemployed people for every UK vacancy in May to July 2026, up from 2.3 a year earlier
- 7,000 the vacancy fall at businesses with 1 to 9 employees, the largest drop of any employment size band
- 10.9% how far total UK vacancies now sit below their pre-pandemic January to March 2020 level
- 0.6% real annual regular pay growth for May to July 2026 once CPIH inflation is stripped out
- 3.9% annual growth in total pay including bonuses, the lowest reading since September to November 2020
- 2.9% annual regular pay growth in the private sector
- 6.3% annual regular pay growth in the public sector
- 101,000 the fall in payrolled employees between July 2025 and July 2026
- 1.692 million the UK Claimant Count for August 2026, up on both the month and the year
- 51,000 the annual rise in professional, scientific and technical jobs, the largest of any sector
What the report covers
The Office for National Statistics published its labour market overview for September 2026 on 15 September. It is the monthly umbrella release, pulling together employment, unemployment, economic inactivity, vacancies, earnings and workforce jobs for the UK, and it draws on three separate collection routes: the Labour Force Survey of households, HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information covering payrolled employees, and the ONS Vacancy Survey of employers.
The headline is labour demand. Early estimates put vacancies at 702,000 for June to August 2026, down 8,000 (1.1%) on the quarter and 36,000 (4.9%) on the year, leaving them 86,000 (10.9%) below their pre-pandemic January to March 2020 level. That is the lowest reading since February to April 2021, and outside the pandemic period the last comparable figure was August to October 2014. Vacancies fell in 10 of the 18 industry sectors, with education recording the largest volume drop at 5,000 fewer, a 9.7% quarterly fall.
The detail that matters most is in the companion ONS vacancies and jobs bulletin: of the five employment size bands, businesses with 1 to 9 employees were the biggest contributor to both the quarterly and annual falls, down 7,000 vacancies on the quarter. The ONS says feedback from its Vacancy Survey continues to suggest smaller firms may not be recruiting because of increases in labour costs. Pay tells a parallel story. Regular earnings growth held at 3.5% but splits sharply by sector, 6.3% in the public sector against 2.9% in the private sector, and real regular pay growth after CPIH inflation is down to 0.6%. That is a tighter squeeze than the one we covered in our report on the July 2026 labour market figures.
What this means for UK marketers
Read this release as two separate signals, because they point marketing budgets in opposite directions.
The first is the small-firm pullback. Businesses with 1 to 9 employees are the biggest single contributor to falling vacancies, and the ONS attributes it to labour costs rather than to weak order books. For any agency or B2B service business, that is the segment most likely to be reviewing every recurring cost this autumn, marketing retainers included. It also changes what a good pitch looks like. A micro-business that has just decided not to hire is not buying growth ambition, it is buying a cheaper way to do the work it cannot staff. Lead with the cost-per-outcome case, not the strategy deck, and expect procurement questions you did not get last year.
The second is where demand actually went. Professional, scientific and technical jobs rose 51,000 over the year, the largest increase of any sector. Those firms are hiring while the rest of the economy is not, which makes them the segment with both budget and a live need. If you are running Google Ads for lead generation into a B2B funnel, that is where to weight spend and negative-keyword work, rather than spreading evenly across sectors where vacancies are contracting. Recruitment advertisers should plan the mirror image: with 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy and education vacancies down 9.7% in a quarter, candidate-side volume is cheap and employer-side demand is thin.
On the consumer side, the number to plan against is 0.6% real regular pay growth. Household incomes are technically still growing, but not by enough to fund discretionary upgrades, which is consistent with the finding that 59% of Britons are still cutting back on non-essentials. For ecommerce that argues for holding price and competing on proof, returns policy and delivery certainty rather than discounting into a flat market. A rising Claimant Count, at 1.692 million in August, also makes employment-sensitive categories worth watching in your own conversion data before you commit Q4 budget.
One caution on timing. These are three-month averages and the vacancy figure carries a confidence interval of roughly plus or minus 32,000, so an 8,000 quarterly move is not statistically meaningful on its own. The trend is what counts, and the trend has been broadly flat all year rather than falling off a cliff. Plan for a slow grind, not a shock.
How they got the data
The vacancy estimates come from the ONS Vacancy Survey, a survey of UK employers, which recorded a 76.4% response rate in August 2026. Estimates are published as seasonally adjusted three-month averages. Sampling variability on the three-month average is plus or minus 1.3% as a coefficient of variation, giving a 95% confidence interval of approximately plus or minus 32,000 vacancies, and roughly plus or minus 6% for a typical individual industry sector. Jobs estimates are compiled from the Quarterly Business Survey (73.4% response in June 2026), the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Surveys and the Labour Force Survey. Full detail sits in the ONS Vacancy Survey quality and methodology information.
Two caveats are worth carrying into any use of these figures. First, the three data sources disagree by design: the Labour Force Survey measures people in households, workforce jobs measures jobs via business surveys, and PAYE Real Time Information covers only payrolled employees from HMRC administrative records, so levels and movements differ and the ONS advises reading longer-term trends rather than single months. Second, the accreditation picture is mixed. Vacancy statistics, workforce jobs, average weekly earnings and PAYE RTI are accredited official statistics reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation, while the Labour Force Survey outputs behind the unemployment and inactivity rates are moving to official statistics rather than seeking reaccreditation, pending the Transformed Labour Force Survey. Claimant Count remains official statistics in development. The August payrolled-employee figure is provisional and will revise.
Government · UK
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From Office for National Statistics · published 15/09/2026