Hiring confidence | UK job market shows cautious recovery amid strong June figures

Amid a backdrop of a 4.7% unemployment rate and wider economic slowdown, UK job vacancies saw their fastest annual growth in nearly three years in June, rising +2.68% to 875,546 jobs, signalling progress on hiring confidence, according to the latest UK Job Market Report by job matching platform Adzuna. 

This figure not only marks the strongest annual growth since July 2022 – and the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year gains, but it also means month-on-month vacancies are up after two consecutive months of decline, at +1.99%. Even though the total listings remain below pre-pandemic levels. 

The increase comes as the UK unemployment rate has risen to a four-year high of 4.7% between March and May 2025. Encouragingly, the economic inactivity rate is falling sharply, now down to 9.1 million, but still above pre-pandemic rates.

Average advertised salaries similarly continued their annual climb in June, reaching £42,397 – up +9.18% year-on-year, despite a marginal drop from May (down £6, or -0.01%). These annual figures extend one of the longest runs of real-terms pay growth since mid-2022, boosted in part by April’s +6.7% increase to the National Minimum Wage.