Make better UK career decisions with real market pay signals
HighestPayingJobs helps you decide what to apply for, what to contract for, and where hiring demand is strongest right now.
Job seekers
Compare salary ranges by role before your next application.
Contractors
Track inside/outside IR35 day-rate movement week to week.
Recruiters and hiring teams
Benchmark compensation and demand pressure by sector and role.
Annual Highest Paying Jobs Rankings
Explore the most search-friendly yearly ranking pages for the most recent completed UK salary years.
Average UK Salary
This is the average advertised salary for all jobs listed in the UK in the 12 months to April 2026:
£40,275.32
Compared with the previous 12-month period (April 2024 to April 2025), this is an increase of £290.77. The average advertised UK salary in that earlier period was £39,984.55.
Inflation-Adjusted Average Advertised Salary (Real Terms)
To compare salary levels across time periods, we adjust for inflation. This converts advertised salary values into estimated real purchasing power using the latest available annual CPI rate for each period.
£38,950.98
March 2026: 3.4%
£38,669.77
March 2025: 3.4%
Deflating £40,275.32 by 3.4% gives an estimated real-terms value of £38,950.98, a purchasing-power gap of £1,324.33.
Compared with the inflation-adjusted value for the previous 12-month period, this is an increase of £281.21 in real terms.
We use the most recent consumer price inflation data provided by the Office for National Statistics.
UK Job Demand by Region
This is a combined view of number of advertised jobs and how much money those jobs paid between 1st April 2025 and 31st March 2026.
Areas where there are higher numbers of job listings, and higher advertised salaries show in the darkest green.
Total UK Jobs Listed by Month
Use this trend view to decide timing: where hiring momentum is accelerating, where it is slowing, and which sectors are worth prioritising next.
Last 12 Month Total UK Jobs
UK Advertised Jobs Count
The total number of advertised jobs in the UK between April 2025 and April 2026:
2,390,951
| Job Type | Total Jobs | Percentage of Jobs 🔽 |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent | 2,324,255 | 97.21 % |
| Contract (Inside IR35) | 47,353 | 1.98 % |
| Contract (Outside IR35) | 19,343 | 0.81 % |
| Contract (IR35 Not Specified) | 0 | 0.00 % |
On average, there are 45,980 new UK Jobs posted each week, or 199,246 each month.
| Job Type | Weekly Jobs | Monthly Jobs 🔽 |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent | 44,697 | 193,687 |
| Contract | 1,282 | 5,558 |
The busiest month for new permanent jobs in the UK is March, whilst the quietest month is June.
The busiest month for new contract jobs is January, and the quietest month is May.
Last 12 Month Permanent UK Jobs
Permanent Jobs
Latest month: April 2026
Jobs listed
281,332
Up 64.9% vs last year
Average salary
£44,420.00
Up 0.4% vs last year
Last 12 Month UK Contract Jobs
Inside IR35
Latest month: April 2026
Jobs listed
4,805
Up 31.1% vs last year
Average day rate
£515.00
Up 3.5% vs last year
Outside IR35
Latest month: April 2026
Jobs listed
1,845
Up 21.6% vs last year
Average day rate
£525.00
Up 3.7% vs last year
Last 12 Month Total Listed Jobs
| Month 🔽 | Listed Jobs | vs Prev Month | vs Prev 3 Months | vs Prev 6 Months | vs Prev Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | 281,332 | ||||
| March 2026 | 320,422 | ||||
| February 2026 | 251,922 | ||||
| January 2026 | 271,628 | ||||
| December 2025 | 108,964 | ||||
| November 2025 | 154,928 | ||||
| October 2025 | 154,263 | ||||
| September 2025 | 194,846 | ||||
| August 2025 | 138,151 | ||||
| July 2025 | 123,852 | ||||
| June 2025 | 91,914 | ||||
| May 2025 | 105,135 |
Highest Paying Jobs By Sector
Compare sector-level pay benchmarks to focus your search, contract targets, or compensation planning on roles with stronger upside.
Open a sector to move from summary into role-level decisions with salary checker and weekly mover actions.