A visitor looks out from the viewing area of Garden at 120 with commercial skyscrapers including The Gherkin seen behind, in the City of London financial district, in London, Britain, September 23, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville
LONDON: Britain’s labour market is showing more signs of cooling and businesses remain negative about their prospects in the coming months, according to surveys.
Job search website Adzuna said yesterday, online job adverts fell by 1.3% in the 12 months to August – the first such drop since February – and by 2.1% in month-on-month terms.
However, vacancies remained higher than in January, typically a peak hiring month, which suggested the jobs market is “cooling, not collapsing”, Adzuna said.
Advertised salaries rose 0.2% in monthly terms in August to £42,367 or about US$56,589.60, and by 8.9% from a year earlier, underscoring the dilemma facing the Bank of England (BoE) which is worried about a hiring slowdown but also inflation pressures.
“Salary growth remains one of the few constants, still outpacing inflation, but hiring appetite is uneven and increasingly shaped by a mix of sector-specific swings and the growing role of artificial intelligence within the British labour market,” Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said.
The BoE held interest rates this month and investors are fully pricing only one 25 basis-point reduction in borrowing costs by the end of next year as the central bank worries about inflation pressures from the jobs market.
Employers have reduced their hiring after an increase in April in their social security contributions, announced in Finance Minister Rachel Reeves’ first budget last October, and a rise in the minimum wage.
Businesses are concerned about further tax rises in Reeves’ next fiscal statement on Nov 26.
Official data published earlier this month showed vacancies rose in the three months to August and wage growth cooled slightly in the May-to-July period.
A survey published yesterday by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) showed British companies expect a drop in activity over the coming three months, partly reflecting the impact of the higher social security contributions for employers.
The CBI said expectations measures in its surveys of manufacturers, retailers and other services industries fell to negative 20 for the three months to December. The CBI’s gauge of business activity was negative 32 in the three months to September.
“A persistent climate of global economic uncertainty is further hampering decision-making,” CBI chief deputy economist Alpesh Paleja said.
“This is now accompanied by renewed nervousness around the November budget, with businesses concerned about being asked to again shoulder the burden of fixing the public finances.” — Reuters
