Open data · updated quarterly
How many applications does a job advert get in the UK?
A median of 31. That is measured across 1176 job adverts we placed for UK employers between 2025-09-10 and 2026-08-13, each one over its full 28-day run: the middle half of adverts drew between 12 and 66 applications, 12.8% drew fewer than five, and 3.6% drew none at all. The averages by sector, salary band and region are below, every one with the number of adverts behind it, and the whole dataset is free to cite.
· last verified 10 September 2026 · source: TalentFinder LogicMelon account, adverts posted 2025-09-10–2026-08-13 · regenerated quarterly
The results
| Measure | Figure | Adverts behind it |
|---|---|---|
| Median applications per advert | 31 | 1176 |
| Middle half (25th–75th percentile) | 12 – 66 | 1176 |
| Share drawing under five applications | 12.8% | 1176 |
| Share drawing none at all | 3.6% | 1176 |
| Median where the salary was shown | 31 | 1086 |
| Median where the salary was hidden | 36.5 | 90 |
| Median flagged as suitable by a reviewer | 4 | 735 |
| Share of adverts with at least one flagged | 62.5% | 1176 |
Shares are published to one decimal place. A figure of “—” means the file publishes no value for that cell.
Applications per advert, by sector
| Sector | Adverts | Median applications | Middle half | Under five | None at all |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accountancy & finance recruitment | 82 | 43 | 17.3 – 87.8 | 13.4% | 3.7% |
| Building services & trades recruitment | 114 | 20 | 8.3 – 37.5 | 18.4% | 2.6% |
| Care & social care recruitment | 76 | 44 | 16.8 – 78 | 13.2% | 2.6% |
| Charity & community recruitment | 8 | 40 | 31.8 – 51 | 12.5% | 0.0% |
| Construction & property recruitment | 71 | 18 | 8.5 – 39.5 | 18.3% | 8.5% |
| Engineering recruitment | 79 | 15 | 6 – 38.5 | 19.0% | 6.3% |
| Insurance & financial services recruitment | 22 | 13 | 5.5 – 28.8 | 27.3% | 0.0% |
| IT & technology recruitment | 17 | 85 | 37 – 149 | 5.9% | 5.9% |
| Legal recruitment | 70 | 13 | 3 – 35.8 | 31.4% | 10.0% |
| Manufacturing recruitment | 57 | 40 | 12 – 59 | 12.3% | 3.5% |
| Other roles (outside the sectors this site covers) | 468 | 40.5 | 18 – 79 | 7.9% | 2.6% |
| Sales engineering recruitment | 9 | 16 | 15 – 58 | 11.1% | 0.0% |
| Transport & logistics recruitment | 89 | 57 | 20 – 105 | 4.5% | 1.1% |
| Utilities & infrastructure recruitment | 14 | 16.5 | 11.3 – 19 | 14.3% | 0.0% |
Sector is derived from the job title by a published keyword map; 60.2% of adverts (708) map onto one of this site's sectors and the rest are reported as “other” rather than forced into one.
Applications per advert, by salary band
| Advertised salary | Adverts | Median applications | Middle half | Under five | None at all |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under £20,000 | 6 | under the reporting floor (n<8, 6 adverts) | |||
| £20,000–£24,999 | 52 | 59 | 31 – 120 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| £25,000–£29,999 | 281 | 56 | 28 – 116 | 6.0% | 1.4% |
| £30,000–£34,999 | 222 | 38 | 15 – 73 | 10.4% | 4.5% |
| £35,000–£39,999 | 181 | 18 | 6 – 39 | 19.3% | 3.9% |
| £40,000–£49,999 | 211 | 18 | 7 – 41 | 20.4% | 5.7% |
| £50,000–£59,999 | 82 | 18 | 6.5 – 35 | 19.5% | 4.9% |
| £60,000 and above | 50 | 18.5 | 5 – 52.5 | 24.0% | 8.0% |
| Hidden or not stated | 91 | 36 | 18.5 – 66.5 | 3.3% | 1.1% |
Bands use the midpoint of the advertised range. An advert with the salary hidden or with no usable figure sits in its own band and is never assumed into one; 92.3% of adverts (1085) carried a usable figure.
Applications per advert, by region
| Region | Adverts | Median applications | Middle half | Under five | None at all |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East England | 19 | 12 | 2.5 – 21.5 | 36.8% | 10.5% |
| North West England | 202 | 42.5 | 18 – 71.8 | 8.4% | 2.0% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 89 | 23 | 7 – 45 | 20.2% | 3.4% |
| East Midlands | 89 | 43 | 17 – 89 | 12.4% | 3.4% |
| West Midlands | 67 | 20 | 9 – 43 | 16.4% | 4.5% |
| East of England | 138 | 27.5 | 11 – 71 | 12.3% | 7.2% |
| London | 205 | 45 | 18 – 95 | 9.8% | 1.5% |
| South East England | 158 | 22 | 8 – 52.8 | 16.5% | 4.4% |
| South West England | 67 | 19 | 7 – 50.5 | 20.9% | 6.0% |
| Wales | 50 | 39 | 18.3 – 54.8 | 4.0% | 2.0% |
| Scotland | 38 | 29 | 18 – 60.8 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Northern Ireland | 16 | 12.5 | 6.5 – 18.8 | 12.5% | 0.0% |
| Not stated or ambiguous | 38 | 20 | 10.8 – 77 | 15.8% | 5.3% |
Region is derived from the advert's location text; 96.8% of adverts (1138) resolve to a region. A place name belonging to two places is reported as not stated rather than guessed.
What this dataset does not tell you
not_measured — the advert ledger records total applications per advert, not the timestamp of the first one. No estimate is published.
It also says nothing about quality. The reviewer's suitability flag is the closest thing we hold, and it is reported over the 735 adverts that carry one — an advert with no flag has not necessarily produced nobody suitable, only that nobody marked one, and that distinction is the difference between a finding and an accusation.
What was excluded, and why
| Excluded | Adverts |
|---|---|
| No post date | 0 |
| Posted before period | 450 |
| Still running | 93 |
| Own brand | 45 |
| Test fixture | 0 |
| Missing title | 0 |
| Empty description | 0 |
| Republic of ireland | 64 |
| Outside uk | 8 |
Cite this
Free to quote in full or in part, including commercially, with attribution and a link. No permission needed.
TalentFinder UK Job Advert Response Benchmark, Q3 2026, talentfinderuk.co.uk/data/job-advert-response-benchmark
The complete dataset, including every breakdown and the anonymised record behind each figure, is published as JSON at https://www.talentfinderuk.co.uk/data/job-advert-response-benchmark.json. Journalists and researchers wanting a cut we have not published can email info@talentfinderuk.co.uk and we will run it.
· last verified 10 September 2026 · source: TalentFinder LogicMelon account, adverts posted 2025-09-10–2026-08-13 · regenerated quarterly
How this was measured
Population: every job advert placed through our own LogicMelon account with a last post date between 2025-09-10 and 2026-08-13 — twelve months of adverts, none of them newer than 28 days, so every advert in the set has completed its full 28-day run. Of 1836 adverts on the ledger, 1176 qualify. Excluded: 450 posted before the period, 93 still running or too recent to have finished, 45 placed by our own brands, 0 test fixtures, 0 carrying no advert text, 0 with no job title, 64 in the Republic of Ireland and 8 outside these islands. This is a UK benchmark, so adverts outside the UK are excluded rather than folded into an "unknown" region. Applications are the count recorded against the advert in our applicant tracking system, read at the last sweep (2026-09-10 07:32:15). Shortlisted counts are the green "suitable" flag a reviewer sets on an applicant; an advert with no green flag has not necessarily produced no suitable candidate, only that nobody flagged one, so shortlist figures are reported over the adverts that carry a flag and are labelled as such. Sector is derived from the job title by a published keyword map onto the thirteen sectors this site covers; 60.2% of adverts map to one and the rest are reported as "other" rather than forced into a sector. Region is derived from the advert's location text onto the twelve UK regions and nations; a place name that belongs to two places (Newcastle, Gillingham, Sutton) is reported as "not stated or ambiguous" rather than guessed. Salary bands use the midpoint of the advertised range, annualised at 1950 hours or 260 days a year where the advert quotes an hourly or daily rate; an advert with the salary hidden or with no usable figure sits in its own "hidden or not stated" band and is never assumed. Suppression: any cell built on fewer than 8 adverts is published as suppressed with no figures, because a median over a handful of adverts is not a finding. The cell's advert count is still shown so the reader can see why. Not measured: time to first application. Our advert ledger records the total applications an advert received, not the timestamp of each one, so we hold no evidence for that figure and do not estimate it. Every advert behind these figures is listed in the "evidence" block with its sector, band, region and application count under an anonymised identifier, so any number on this page can be recomputed independently.
Questions about this data
How many applications does a job advert get in the UK?
A median of 31 across 1176 adverts we placed in the twelve months to 2026-08-13, each measured over its full 28-day run. The middle half drew between 12 and 66. The spread matters more than the average: 12.8% of adverts drew fewer than five applications and 3.6% drew none at all, so a "typical" advert is a weak thing to plan around.
Which sectors draw the most applications, and which the fewest?
Of the sectors that clear our reporting floor, IT & technology recruitment drew the most — a median of 85 applications from 17 adverts — and Insurance & financial services recruitment the fewest, at 13 from 22. Every sector's figure and the count behind it is in the table above; a sector under the floor publishes no figure at all.
Does showing the salary change how many people apply?
In this dataset the medians are 31 where the salary was shown (1086 adverts) and 36.5 where it was hidden (90 adverts). We are not going to turn that into a rule: the hidden group is small and the two sets are not otherwise comparable — hidden salaries cluster in particular kinds of role. It is published because it is what our own adverts did, with the counts attached.
Do lower-paid roles get more applications?
In our data the strongest response came from the £20,000–£24,999 band — a median of 59 applications across 52 adverts. Every band is in the table above with its own count, and a band under the reporting floor is published as suppressed rather than guessed at.
How quickly does the first application arrive?
We do not know, and we are not going to estimate it. Our advert ledger records the total number of applications an advert received, not the time each one arrived, so there is no evidence here for that figure. If that changes we will measure it rather than model it.
Is this a national average?
No. It is our own account — 1176 adverts placed by one flat-fee provider, for real clients, across 14 sector groupings and 13 UK regions. It is published in full, with the anonymised record behind every figure, so it can be checked. A market average would need everybody's adverts, and nobody publishes those.
What to do with this
If the number that matters to you is how long the role stays open rather than how many people apply, the companion dataset is median time to fill by sector. Before you write the advert, check what the role is being advertised at locally — pay is the variable most likely to be the reason an advert underperforms — and work out what the vacancy is costing while it stays open. When you are ready, have the advert written free and see what posting it costs.
Our wider open dataset — the full candidate funnel behind every role we filled — is on the recruitment data page.