UK jobseekers are spending £1.44 billion a year on looking for their dream job according to research from Totaljobs.

The data showed that each jobseeker spends on average up to £852 a year on interviews, which includes new clothes, courses and training, transport and haircuts. On average, they spend £146 on every job interview they attend which includes spending £33 on a new outfit, £20 on new shoes, and £24 on transport. Moreover, 16-24 year olds spend the most out of any age group, spending up to £167 on average for every interview.

Meanwhile, the data also reveals that 27% of jobseekers don’t research the role when preparing for a job interview and 60% don’t update their CVs for each role applied for. Furthermore, 37% of jobseekers don’t research the industry when preparing for a job interview.

“It’s concerning to see the amount of money that jobseekers are spending to get themselves noticed, when they are not preparing in some of the most basic, low cost, but effective ways they could be,” John Salt, Group sales director, Totaljobs, said. “Simple things like researching the role and the industry will obviously count for a lot at interview stage, as will the way jobseekers come across generally to their prospective employer in interview.”

The Totaljobs research also reveals that 76% of jobseekers are finding the job hunting process difficult while 81% have job hunting fears. Fears include not being invited for interview (28%), never finding a new job (16%) and not having the right or enough experience (13%).