According to the latest UK Job Market report from Adzuna, June saw job competition drop to two jobs per jobseeker, the lowest rate on record.

Despite growing uncertainty ahead of the EU Referendum, June saw an increase in the number of available vacancies to 1,157,723. This was 6.0% higher than the number of advertised vacancies on offer in June 2015 (1,092,030). It was also up 0.7% from the 1,150,149 on offer the previous month, according Adzuna.

“Jobseekers have a lot to be optimistic about,” Doug Monro, co-founder of Adzuna, said. “Rising vacancies in June suggests that the jobs market was strong pre-Brexit and that employers may still be keen to hire in the next couple of months.”

Job competition across the UK fell to 0.50 jobseekers per vacancy in June – the lowest rate on record. This marked an improvement since competition for each vacancy stood at 0.67 in June 2015 and marked a monthly drop from 0.52 in May. A fall in job competition is also a sign that the talent shortage may be sharpening across the UK and vacancies may be taking longer to fill.

The most recent data for 16-22 July reveals that 608,985 new jobs were posted, up 0.4% from the previous week and marking a recovery from the week immediately after the EU vote.

“As well as more jobs on offer, an ongoing skills shortage is making jobseekers more valuable to companies,” Monro said. “Employers are competing to snap up those with the right skills giving applicants more bargaining power in the boardroom over salary and benefits. Job hunters now have more options and can push for a better deal.”

The report also showed that the average advertised salary in June fell to £32,715 down 1.0% from £33,062 the previous month.

Among the cities, Cambridge was the most vibrant labour market with 14 jobs available for every jobseeker (0.07). Sunderland ranked the worst with 2.97 jobseekers per vacancy.

Among the sectors, the report shows that legal and finance sectors have seen vacancies stagnate. Financial vacancies have dropped to 79,693, down 14% from 92,186 in June 2015, while legal vacancies dropped to 20,854, down 23% from June 2015.