United Kingdom Job Market 2026: Fields, Cities, Skills
Applying to jobs across the UK and hearing nothing back? You are not alone, and a lot of the problem is aiming at the wrong fields or the wrong city. As of November 2, 2026, JobRise tracks 72,560 open jobs in the United Kingdom, and 50,508 of them (70%) were posted in the last 30 days. The United Kingdom job market in 2026 is big and fresh, but it is lopsided, so knowing where the openings cluster saves you time.
What this data covers#
The UK numbers in this post are as of November 2, 2026, a few days older than the Canada and Australia reports. These are jobs JobRise tracks from employer career pages and public job APIs. It is not the whole UK market. The biggest source is Reed, with 23,357 listings (32% of the total), followed by NHS Jobs (9,206, 13%), Greenhouse (8,968, 12%), Workday (5,395, 7.4%) and Workable (5,103). The full report is at /en/reports/hiring/united-kingdom/.
JobRise started tracking on October 14, 2026. Jobs that were already open then have no known posting date (2,362 jobs), so they are left out of the new-job counts. Still, 19,603 jobs (27% of open jobs) were new in the last 7 days.
The sources matter for how you search. Reed does not mark remote roles, and neither does Teaching Vacancies (4,264 listings), which is useful if you are looking at school jobs. Greenhouse (8,968) and Workday (5,395) mark remote roles, and so does Himalayas (3,576). The 17% remote share later in this post only uses sources that mark remote work.
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When the new jobs came in#
The UK posting pattern has clear peaks. The busiest posting day in the last 30 days was October 23, 2026, with 4,676 new jobs. The days around it also ran high: October 19 (3,940), October 20 (4,271), October 27 (4,633) and October 28 (4,464).
Spikes like these usually mean JobRise picked up new job sources on those days, so they do not show that employers all hired at once. Daily counts include only jobs still open, so older days look smaller than they were. The last bar, November 2 (2,937), is a partial day.
United Kingdom job market 2026 by field#
Healthcare is the biggest field, with 12,497 open jobs (17%). Sales (8%), operations (7.9%) and education (7.3%) come next.
| Category | Open jobs | Share of open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | 12,497 | 17% |
| Sales | 5,828 | 8% |
| Operations | 5,705 | 7.9% |
| Education | 5,300 | 7.3% |
| Finance | 4,342 | 6% |
| Software | 3,805 | 5.2% |
| Engineering | 2,959 | 4.1% |
| Admin | 2,936 | 4% |
| Logistics | 2,708 | 3.7% |
| Marketing | 2,382 | 3.3% |
Categories come from job titles and departments using keyword rules, so treat each one as a best guess from the wording. Another 10,212 jobs (14%) sit in "Other" because the rules could not classify them. That is not a field, so it is not in the table.
Keep in mind that NHS Jobs supplies 9,206 openings in this report, so the healthcare count leans heavily on that one source. If you work in healthcare, read the registration and experience lines on each posting carefully.
If you work in software, the honest read is that software is 3,805 jobs, about 5.2% of the market. Tech roles are there, but a tech skill next to finance, operations or sales may get you more interviews than a pure tech profile.
United Kingdom job market 2026 by city and employer#
London has 14,462 open jobs, which is 20% of the total. No other city comes close. Manchester (1.7%) and Birmingham (1.3%) are next, then Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow and Leeds.
| City | Open jobs | Share of open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| London | 14,462 | 20% |
| Manchester | 1,226 | 1.7% |
| Birmingham | 970 | 1.3% |
| Bristol | 710 | 1% |
| Cambridge | 628 | 0.9% |
| Glasgow | 604 | 0.8% |
Because London holds a fifth of the openings, a London-only search can miss most of the market. Remote is a smaller slice. Of the 26,941 jobs from sources that mark remote work, 17% are remote (4,693 jobs). The remote count only includes roles limited to applicants in the UK, but read each posting's location rules before you apply.
Pulse Healthcare has the most openings of any single employer, with 2,507 jobs (3.5%). Appcastenterprise (1,276), Reed (1,174) and Private Equity Insights (1,063) follow. The top 15 employers together hold 15% of all open jobs.
| Employer | Open jobs | Share of open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Healthcare | 2,507 | 3.5% |
| Appcastenterprise | 1,276 | 1.8% |
| Reed | 1,174 | 1.6% |
| Private Equity Insights | 1,063 | 1.5% |
| ITOL Recruit | 935 | 1.3% |
| Hays Specialist Recruitment | 719 | 1% |
| JPMorgan Chase | 556 | 0.8% |
Several names in that list are recruiters or staffing firms, such as Hays Specialist Recruitment and ITOL Recruit. The report counts the employer named on the posting, so the company you apply through may not be the one that will employ you. Ask who the employer is before you send anything.
Check the location line too. Tuftsmedicine's latest roles in this report are Boston jobs, so a listing counted in the UK is not always a UK role. Read where the job is based before you apply.
Skills UK employers ask for in 2026#
Skills are ranked by how many different companies name them, so one employer's copied text cannot push a skill to the top. The 30-day change compares the skill's share of jobs posted in the last 30 days with its share in the 30 days before.
| Skill | Companies | Open jobs | 30-day change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safeguarding | 2,165 | 3,407 | -14% |
| DBS check | 1,254 | 2,475 | -39% |
| Customer service | 1,003 | 3,569 | -30% |
| Special educational needs (SEN) | 920 | 1,705 | +71% |
| Negotiation | 886 | 1,608 | -64% |
| CRM | 868 | 1,835 | -66% |
| English | 812 | 1,816 | -48% |
| Procurement | 803 | 1,507 | -49% |
| Python | 784 | 2,622 | -72% |
| Project management | 779 | 2,586 | -61% |
The report marks three skills as rising, and all three are in education: Special educational needs (SEN) (+71%), QTS (+61%) and Early years (EYFS) (+34%). QTS is named by 209 companies, and Early years (EYFS) by 196.
Safeguarding and DBS checks are the skills to notice if you want school or care work. In education, Safeguarding is named by 1,288 companies across 1,625 open jobs (31% of education jobs), and DBS check by 818 companies across 1,083 open jobs (20%). In healthcare, Patient care is named in 1,127 open jobs (9%) and HCPC registration in 814 open jobs (6.5%).
Education is where the rising skills sit, so here is how its top skills look inside that field:
| Skill (education jobs) | Companies | Open jobs | Share of education jobs | 30-day change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safeguarding | 1,288 | 1,625 | 31% | -47% |
| DBS check | 818 | 1,083 | 20% | -58% |
| Special educational needs (SEN) | 714 | 1,223 | 23% | -3.6% |
| QTS | 196 | 305 | 5.8% | -12% |
| Early years (EYFS) | 151 | 257 | 4.9% | +35% |
Other field-level picks:
- Software: Python (413 companies, 24% of software jobs), AWS (403) and CI/CD (376).
- Sales: Negotiation (463 companies, 12% of sales jobs), CRM (445) and Prospecting (413).
- Finance: ACCA (203 companies, 6.8% of finance jobs), Reconciliation (203) and Excel (200).
What to do this week#
- Start with the field, not the headline. Healthcare, sales, operations and education have the most openings. If you are a teacher, a support worker or a sales rep, the field numbers above are the ones to read first.
- Check the checks. If a posting asks for a DBS check or safeguarding training, find out whether you already have it or how long it takes before you apply.
- Match the words on the posting. If a posting names CRM, Salesforce, Python or ACCA, use that exact term where it is true. Run one posting through the free ATS check and read how to tailor your resume for each job.
- Pick a city, then open the posting. London has the most openings, but Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol are each worth a look. Browse live listings at /en/jobs/in/united-kingdom/, then check who the real employer is.
- Decode the hard postings. If a posting uses terms you do not know, paste it into the job description decoder before you decide.
- Apply in small batches with a short note. Write each cover letter with the cover letter tool, and send a short message to a recruiter with the cold email guide.
- Start with the newest listings. 19,603 jobs were posted in the last 7 days, so check those first each day, then work back through the rest.
Skills by field for the UK are on one page at /en/skills/united-kingdom/.
What this data cannot tell you#
The data does not include salaries, visa or sponsorship rules, or how many people applied to each job. It also cannot confirm that every posting is still filling roles, and it is a snapshot from November 2, 2026. Read each posting for pay and location, and check official UK government sources before you plan a move or give up a job here. The data can still help you choose which fields, cities and skills to target.
Want to see how your resume scores against a UK posting? Run the free ATS check. Free, no signup.
Send this to whoever has the interview this week.