UK LABOUR MARKET SEES MIXED TRENDS IN MAY 2025

"UK Labour Market Sees Mixed Trends in May 2025”

In May 2025, the UK saw 726,084 new job listings, reflecting a slight 0.3% increase compared to April 2025. Meanwhile, the total number of active job postings dropped by 1.8% to 1,440,792, largely due to older listings being removed. Among the regions, Scotland and the South West recorded the largest increases in total job postings, with rises of 9.2% and 4.7% respectively. While new vacancies edged up in May, the overall volume of live job ads remained above 1.4 million, according to the latest Labour Market Tracker from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and Lightcast.

The latest Labour Market Tracker reveals a continued decline in job vacancies for certain roles, with Business Sales Executives seeing a drop for the second consecutive month (-47.3%), along with significant decreases for Authors, Writers and Translators (-24.4%), and Dental Practitioners (-26.6%).

Conversely, some occupations experienced strong growth between April and May 2025. Delivery Drivers and Couriers rose by 53.7%, followed by Food, Drink and Tobacco Process Operatives (34.1%) and Business Associate Professionals (27.7%).

Regionally, the biggest rises in job postings were seen in Causeway Coast and Glens (31.1%), Dumfries and Galloway (25.7%), and Westminster—which recorded growth for the second month in a row (38.2%).

Areas with the steepest declines included Newry, Mourne and Down (-11.8%), Ards and North Down (-16.1%), and Camden and the City of London (-20.3%).