The number of online job postings, an indicator of the demand for workers, has steadily declined back to pre-pandemic levels in London over the last 18 months. This fall in postings coincides with other labour market indicators also weakening over the period, and suggest the overall health of the labour market is slowly worsening, albeit still strong in a historical context.

Across occupational groups, postings associated with lower skill level requirements have declined the least, though these occupations generally make up a relatively small share of all online job postings in London. The most advertised occupations continue to be in professional services.

Overall median advertised salary trends are slightly higher than a year previous in real terms. However, while there has been recent growth in real advertised salary levels, the impact of inflation over the previous two years remains apparent with advertised salaries still 8% lower in real cash terms than in March 2020. There is also considerable variation across occupations in terms of median salary changes, with elementary and care occupations seeing the strongest advertised wage growth, possibly reflecting either the continuing difficulty of hiring for these jobs, or changes in minimum wage levels.

Introduction

This update is based on online job postings data provided by Lightcast (formerly Emsi Burning Glass). It looks at online postings for jobs in London, including detail on information within postings (e.g. occupations, salary level and job location).

The number of online job postings is an indicator of the demand for labour, as well as the quality of skills matches in the labour market. Used together with traditional sources, it can (for example) be used to help to support the planning and delivery of skills provision and careers information, advice and guidance.


The number of online job postings is presented as unique, de-duplicated monthly postings. However, online job postings data is subject to revision and not all jobs adverts are posted online with professional occupations somewhat over represented in the data relative to more technical and elementary roles. Therefore, while useful as an indicator, it is unlikely to present the full picture for job openings in London. For more information see: Understanding online job postings data.


More data on London’s labour market can be found on the London Datastore, including an analysis of job postings with green skills or job titles.


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Total online job postings

The chart below shows the number of unique online postings for jobs in London. Given the volatility associated with single-month estimates, the three-month average estimates provide a more reliable indication of short-term changes in the demand for labour.

  • Following economic reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic, the three-month average number of online postings climbed rapidly from the latter half of 2021 and into early 2022, reaching a peak of 185,000 in the three months to June 2022.

  • The number of online job postings then decreased sharply over the summer of 2022 before temporarily evening out around the beginning of 2023. Since then and into the beginning of 2024, the level of recruitment activity has been steadily declining back towards 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

  • Latest job posting estimates suggest there were 108,000 online postings for jobs in London in March 2024 (single-month estimate), a decrease of 26.3% on the year. While this represents a sharp drop, there has been a slight uptick in recruitment activity in the early months of 2024 following the typical seasonal slow-down in the run-up to the December holiday period.

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Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: non-seasonally adjusted. March 2020 indicated by dotted line.

Vacancies and unemployment

Comparing the level of job vacancies (or online job postings) with unemployment can be used to assess the status of the labour market. It is said to be ‘tight’ if vacant jobs are plentiful and available workers are scarce. If the opposite is true, the labour market is instead characterised as being ‘loose’ or ‘slack’.

The charts below compare the three-month rolling average of online jobs postings to the number of unemployed people in London since 2014.

  • Between 2014 and March 2020, the average ratio of job postings to unemployed Londoners was 0.52. During this period, the ratio peaked at 0.84 in the middle of 2017. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment rose while job postings declined. This led to a sharp drop in the ratio of postings to unemployed Londoners to 0.23.

  • Unemployment began to fall quickly in 2021 while the number of job postings rose. The increase in the ratio continued into 2022, reaching a peak of around 0.83 in the summer of 2022. This ratio has since declined due to both a declining number of job postings and a gradually rising number of people unemployed (although there is much volatility in these figures). As such, the latest estimates suggest that the ratio of unemployed people to job postings has now returned to its pre-pandemic level.

  • The labour market has steadily cooled, with our indicator standing at 0.47 in Dec-Feb 2024, the same level as Dec-Feb 2020.

    Note on accuracy of LFS data: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the ONS has been challenged by reduced Labour Force Survey (LFS) response rates that has led to smaller sample sizes and the potential for unreliability in the production of its more granular labour market statistics.

    Owing to these challenges the ONS has changed the way it collects data for unemployment. These changes, are one possible reason for the sharp swings in the observed regional labour market data in recent releases. As further data collection improvements feed into published results, there is a possibility of further revisions to this data, and as such these statistics should be interpreted cautiously.


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Ratio between job postings and unemployment

Source: Lightcast 2024, non-seasonally adjusted; ONS Labour Force Survey.

Note: March 2020 indicated by dotted line.

Note: The margin of error for unemployment is ±1.1% for London and ±0.3% for the UK. The LFS has been reweigted from July to September 2022 onwards.

Level of job postings and unemployment

Source: Lightcast 2024, non-seasonally adjusted; ONS Labour Force Survey.

Note: March 2020 indicated by dotted line.

Note: The margin of error for unemployment is ±1.1% for London and ±0.3% for the UK. The LFS has been reweigted from July to September 2022 onwards.

Occupational groups

While online job postings trends in most occupational groups reflect the overall London picture of gradual decline back to pre-pandemic levels, there has been sustained growth in a number of lower-skilled and manual occupations, relative to pre-pandemic levels.

  • The major occupation group with the largest rate of increase in the post-pandemic period was Elementary occupations with an increase of 652% from March 2020 to the peak in September 2021. By March 2024, the change from March 2020 had slowed to 81%, though it was still the highest level of growth among occupation groups.

  • While recruitment activity for Professional occupations is lowest relative to its pre-COVID level (-9%), it is important to note that they continue to account for by far the largest absolute number of job postings in London’s labour market.

  • Among four-digit SOC occupations (with more than 1,000 job postings), Chefs recorded the highest growth rate from March 2020 to March 2024 at 109%.*

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*Percentage growth rates are sensitive to low levels in the reference period.

Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: non-seasonally adjusted. March 2020 indicated by dotted line.

Skill levels

The ONS has grouped all 2-digit occupations into one of four skill levels, with occupations at Level 4 requiring the longest time to acquire full competency.

The number of online job postings varied significantly by skill level, with a higher number of postings for higher skilled jobs in London.

The number of job postings peaked in May 2022 for most skill levels. From then to March 2024, the change in job postings were as follows:

  • Skill level 4 (e.g. health professionals): -50%.
  • Skill level 3 (e.g. skilled construction trades): -44%.
  • Skill level 2 (e.g. sales occupations): -32%.
  • Skill level 1 (e.g. elementary service occupations): -56%.

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Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: non-seasonally adjusted. March 2020 and May 2022 indicated by dotted lines. Based on 2-digit SOC codes.

Top 10 occupations

Sub-major occupation groups

The table below shows the ten two-digit SOC codes with the highest number of unique new online job postings in the most recent three-month period (January 2024-March 2024). For comparison, it also shows the change in the number of job postings compared to the previous three-month period and the same period a year earlier.

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Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: Number of unique new postings in period. Based on 2-digit SOC codes.

Unit occupation groups

The table below shows the ten four-digit SOC codes with the highest number of unique new online job postings in the most recent three-month period (January 2024-March 2024). For comparison, it also shows the change in the number of job postings compared to the previous three-month period and the same period a year earlier.

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Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: Number of unique new postings in period. Based on 4-digit SOC codes.

Job characteristics

Remote work

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that more people started to work from home which was reflected in the increasing share of job postings advertised as remote work from March 2020.

The share of job postings advertised as offering remote working in London peaked at 23.2% in December 2022 but has declined since.

The share of 16.6% in London in March 2024 remained above the share in the UK overall at 11.2%.

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Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: non-seasonally adjusted. March 2020 indicated by dotted line.

Flexible work/hours

The chart below shows the long-term trend in the share of online job postings in London advertised with either part-time or flexible hours.

The onset of pandemic lockdowns did not appear to have any large and immediate impact on the share of job postings for flexible or part-time hours relative to the pre-pandemic period. The spikes between August 2021 and March 2022, appear, in-part, to have been driven by increased demand for cleaning staff in line with lockdown and post-lockdown procedures.

There has also been a gradual increase in the share of London’s postings related to part-time jobs from 5.4% in April 2022 to 8.6% in March 2024.

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*Not all online job postings include information on the number of hours required. When the information is not present, the posting is assumed to be for a full-time position.

Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: non-seasonally adjusted. Full-time defined as at least 32 hours. March 2020 indicated by dotted line.

Regional online job postings

The fluctuations in the number of online job postings have been similar across regions. London’s recovery has generally followed the UK trend, but has fallen below the UK average over the past 18 months.

Relative to March 2020 levels:

  • The level of job postings in the UK overall peaked in November 2021, having grown by 100%. The growth rate for job postings in London was 59% at that point, which was among the lowest across all regions.

  • By May 2022, London was instead among the regions with the highest growth at 91%, above the UK growth rate of 81%.

  • In March 2024, the level of job postings in London increased following the seasonal December slow-down to 4% above its pre-pandemic level, while the overall UK growth rate increased to 34%.

  • Relative to its pre-pandemic indexed level, and despite this latest increase, London now has the lowest level of recruitment activity of any UK region.

    • In absolute terms however, London accounts for the second largest share of unique job postings (15.6%), just behind the South East (16.5%).

The change in the indexed level of job postings is sensitive to base effects and the date of indexation. Areas with historically low levels of job postings are more likely to experience higher growth rates.


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Source: Lightcast 2024.

Note: non-seasonally adjusted. March 2020 indicated by dotted line.


We do not present online job postings estimates at local authority level as the location data is not sufficiently precise to allocate postings to individual London local authorities.

Comparison of data providers

Trends in online job postings from Lightcast correlate well with similar data published by Indeed, and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using Adzuna.

  • Data from each of these sources show a very sharp drop in job posting levels just after the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

  • The decline was followed by a gradual increase in job postings estimates using data from Indeed, Adzuna, and Lightcast, though the latter series show a number of peaks and troughs, which is likely explained by the seasonality of recruitment activity*.

  • The level of job postings has not seen large fluctuations in any of series’ since the end of 2022, though the Indeed index dropped from 138 in December to 98 in September 2023. The Lightcast index has generally been the highest among the timely series throughout 2023-24.

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*Indeed records the number of job postings on its website. ONS sources data from Adzuna which are aggregators of online job postings. There may be different methodologies used for these series which explains some of the time series variation.

Source: Lightcast (monthly online job postings, non-seasonally adjusted), Indeed (average of daily online job postings), ONS (average of weekly online job adverts from Adzuna, non-seasonally adjusted).

Note: March 2020 indicated by dotted line.