Average advertised vacancies in the UK declined by 3.1% in September 2018 when compared to the same period last year, according to Adzuna’s latest report on jobs.

Total advertised vacancies this month sit at 1,121,754. This was 3.1% lower than the same period last year and a 1.4% slump from August 2018.

Despite the fall in vacancies, the competition for these vacancies is at an all-time low. It has fallen to a new low since Adzuna started measuring this in 2012, standing at 0.34 jobseekers per vacancy nationwide. This translates to there being approximately 3 jobs per jobseeker. 

Adzuna’s search data also shows a 12% year-on-year drop in the number of applications for British jobs from France, Germany, Italy & Spain.

Meanwhile, advertised salaries are on their fifth consecutive month of negative growth, however when compared to the same period last year, average salaries were 4.7% higher.  Adzuna stated that while the longer-term trend is still positive the five-month negative growth streak threatens to derail the wage recovery the UK economy experienced in the first half of 2018.

“Brexit is clearly having an impact on the health of the U.K job market,” Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said. “Adzuna’s data clearly shows vacancies and wages feeling the pressure, and interestingly, migration patterns for jobs look to be changing as application rates for British jobs drop from workers on the continent.”

The Office of National Statistics published its labour market data yesterday and found that there were 845,000 job vacancies for the period from August to October 2018, this was 44,000 more than for a year earlier and the highest since comparable records began in 2001.