Advertised pay
£41,250.00
£39,893.62 in real terms (inflation-adjusted)
-2.1% vs Q1 2025
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Q1 2026 Jobs Market Report
Advertised pay fell 2.1% and hiring activity we tracked rose 138.9% compared with Q1 2025.
Hiring activity we tracked
97% permanent / 3% contract
+138.9% vs Q1 2025
vs Q4 2025
Pay +0.6%, hiring activity +101.9%
Tracked hiring activity surged even as advertised permanent pay softened slightly, with a cluster of smaller districts posting outsized gains and education-sector listings pulling back.
Tracked hiring activity expanded sharply
+138.9%
The volume of hiring activity we tracked rose substantially against the comparison period, a scale of increase well beyond typical quarter-on-quarter movement. This points to a broad pickup in listing activity across the roles and sectors we monitor, though it should be read as a shift in tracked volume rather than a definitive read on the wider labour market.
Advertised permanent pay eased back
-2.1%
Median advertised permanent pay in the roles we tracked slipped modestly compared with the same period a year earlier. A mild pullback like this is consistent with employers moderating pay growth even as the number of postings increased, suggesting more listings rather than stronger pay pressure is driving current activity.
Leicester saw an outsized jump in tracked listings
+1371.3%
Among the districts we tracked, Leicester stood out with an extraordinary increase in hiring activity, dwarfing the rises seen elsewhere. Several other districts, including Sevenoaks, Redditch and Hertsmere, also recorded strong, if less dramatic, increases, hinting at a wider pattern of localised hiring pickups outside the largest cities.
AI-titled roles remain a niche slice of listings
+0.39%
Despite ongoing attention on AI-related hiring, the share of tracked listings carrying an explicitly AI-related job title stayed very small. This suggests that, at least at the job-title level, AI-specific hiring has not yet become a mainstream category within the roles we track, even as overall activity has grown.
Education listings lost ground
-2.89 pts
Education's share of tracked hiring activity fell more than most other sectors we monitor, one of the larger share declines in the period. This stands in contrast to sectors such as accounting and construction, which gained share over the same period, pointing to an uneven reallocation of hiring activity across sectors rather than a uniform slowdown.
Construction and accounting gained ground
+1.12 pts
Construction's share of tracked hiring activity climbed notably, one of the larger gains among the sectors we monitor. Combined with a similarly sized increase for accounting, this suggests hiring activity is tilting somewhat toward these sectors relative to the comparison period, even as overall permanent pay growth cooled.
Watch whether the pay dip proves temporary or persists alongside continued volume growth, and whether the surge in smaller districts broadens out or stays concentrated in a handful of areas.
Sector movers
Change in each sector's share of the hiring activity we tracked, Q1 2025 to Q1 2026.
Growing
- Accounting+3.4% pts
- Logistics+2.8% pts
- Finance+1.2% pts
Shrinking
- Education-2.9% pts
- Healthcare-2.2% pts
- Consulting-1.5% pts
Monthly trend
Within Q1 2026, hiring activity we tracked peaked in March 2026 (dark green below) and was quietest in February 2026 (dark red below).
Based on job listings and advertised salaries we track across the UK. Figures are indicative trends, not a full census of the UK jobs market.