UK Jobs 2024: #PayOut2025 – Salaries Hit the £40‑k Mark
In a surprising twist, the average advertised annual salary climbed past £40,000 for the first time in December 2024. According to Adzuna’s latest job‑market report, pay rose by 7.15% from £37,577 a year earlier, thanks to a gang of employers still hungry for skilled talent but holding back on hiring too.
Vacancies: A Rollercoaster
- Jobs dipped -4.01% to 844,152 in December – the biggest fall since the 2023 holiday bump.
- Year‑on‑year, vacancy numbers shrank -9.15%, but that’s the smallest drop in over a year.
- Job‑seekers per opening hit 2.05 (up from 1.96), meaning the competition’s heating up.
- Average job‑listing stay on the market went from 32.8 to 34.1 days.
Time‑to‑Fill by Sector
- Legal – 31.1 days (the quickest)
- Admin – 31.6 days
- Property – 31.9 days
- Domestic Help & Cleaning – 38.7 days (the longest)
- Energy, Oil & Gas – 38.5 days
- Health & Nursing – 37.0 days
Salaries: Way Down the Transparency Path?
Employer salary transparency is taking a dip: 53.71% of jobs hide pay figures, while 46.29% reveal them. 2024 was the worst year for transparency, with only February offering more paid‑info postings (50.7% vs. 49.3%).
Sector Snapshot – Jobs & Pay Trends
- Teaching – +4.32% jobs, +25.71% annual rise; now boasting over 155,000 openings.
- Trade & Construction – +6.63% growth.
- Retail – -19.01% drop in December, -41.39% annually.
- Hospitality & Catering – -12.73% slump.
- Legal – -3.42% jobs, -3.5% pay drop.
- Logistics & Warehouse – +3.84% jobs, +16.5% salary jump.
- Maintenance – +3.41% jobs, +19.45% salary.
- Manufacturing – +2.81% jobs, +2.81% salary.
- Graduate – -24.4% jobs, +1.9% salary.
Regional Breakdown
- Job‑seekers per vacancy >3.0 in Yorkshire & The Humber, West Midlands, Northern Ireland, North East England.
- South West, South East, and East England have the lowest ratios.
- Salaries see the best regional jump in Northern Ireland (+13.77%), followed by West Midlands and North East England.
- London and South East still sit at the bottom; South West jumps +5.7% to leapfrog London.
Trending Jobs – Who’s in Demand?
- Health Care Support Worker leads the list (Interest Quotient highest).
- Followed by Social Care Worker, Sales Assistant, Cleaner, and Warehouse Worker.
What The Numbers Say (And A Word From Andrew Hunter)
Andrew Hunter, Adzuna co‑founder, remarked: “Job seekers hoping for an unbroken string of growth after November’s bounce will feel let down as vacancies fell again in December. The holiday slowdown is a likely culprit. Sectors like Teaching still enjoy plenty of roles, while Legal, Logistics & Warehousing, and Sales see solid year‑on‑year gains. Even though firms aren’t hiring as aggressively, they’re loosening their purse strings, pushing average advertised salary past £40,000 for the first time since our 2016 tracking began.”
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