Open data · quarterly report
UK Hiring Pulse — Q4 2026
By Talent Finder. Data as at 3 October 2026. Next edition: quarterly.
In the twelve months to 5 September 2026, the median UK job advert placed through Talent Finder drew 31 applications over its 28-day run (n=1,141 adverts). Adverts at £60,000 and above drew about a quarter of the response of those at £25,000–£29,999, regional medians ranged from 19 (South West England) to 45 (London), and 14% of adverts drew fewer than five applications. Filled roles took a median of 42 days from brief to close (n=46).
· last verified 3 October 2026 · source: Talent Finder advert ledger and filled roles · published quarterly
Headline findings
- The typical UK job advert drew 31 applications over its 28-day run; the middle half drew between 11 and 66.n=1,141; source: Talent Finder advert ledger.
- Better-paid roles draw fewer applicants: adverts at £60,000 and above drew a median of 15 applications, against 55 at £25,000–£29,999 — 27% of the response.n=324; source: Talent Finder advert ledger.
- Response varies 2.4-fold by region: London adverts drew a median of 45 applications, South West England 19.n=260; source: Talent Finder advert ledger. Raw regional medians, not adjusted for role mix; see the like-for-like table.
- 14% of adverts drew fewer than five applications — rising to 35% in legal recruitment.n=1,141; source: Talent Finder advert ledger.
- Filled roles took a median of 42 days from brief to close, with 26 candidates sourced and screened for the typical fill.n=46; source: Talent Finder filled roles (published case studies).
- At the median advertised salary (£34,000) and the median time to fill (42 days), an empty seat costs about £2,670 in lost output net of the salary not paid — roughly £440 a week.n=1,053 salaries; 46 filled roles; source: Talent Finder advert ledger + filled roles + ONS FZLN labour share. Illustrative: it combines two medians from different datasets (advertised salary from adverts, time to fill from filled roles) with a whole-economy ONS factor. It is not a measured cost for any employer.
Applications per advert by region
Raw medians across all roles. Regions differ in the jobs they advertise, so the like-for-like table below holds pay constant.
| Region | Adverts | Median applications | Middle half | Under 5 applications | Median stated salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 189 | 45 | 17–96 | 11% | £40,000 (£31,000–£46,000, n=181) |
| East Midlands | 87 | 42 | 17–83 | 14% | £34,000 (£28,000–£39,000, n=79) |
| North West England | 192 | 40 | 18–73 | 9% | £32,000 (£28,000–£40,000, n=175) |
| Wales | 51 | 39 | 18.5–54.5 | 8% | £32,000 (£29,000–£38,000, n=50) |
| East of England | 133 | 31 | 11–71 | 13% | £34,000 (£28,000–£43,000, n=120) |
| Scotland | 35 | 28 | 17.5–50 | 0% | £33,000 (£30,000–£40,000, n=33) |
| South East England | 155 | 22 | 7.5–51 | 17% | £35,000 (£30,000–£40,000, n=148) |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 91 | 22 | 6.5–46.5 | 20% | £30,000 (£27,000–£40,000, n=85) |
| West Midlands | 67 | 20 | 10–43 | 15% | £35,000 (£29,000–£41,000, n=57) |
| South West England | 71 | 19 | 7–50.5 | 23% | £32,000 (£29,000–£38,000, n=62) |
| Northern Ireland | 16 | 12.5 | 6.5–18.8 | 13% | £33,000 (£27,000–£53,000, n=13) |
| North East England | 18 | 12 | 2.3–22.3 | 39% | £41,000 (£36,000–£45,000, n=16) |
| Not stated or ambiguous | 36 | 20 | 11–73.5 | 22% | £33,000 (£28,000–£40,000, n=34) |
Like for like: adverts paying £25,000–£29,999 and £30,000–£34,999
UK median for these adverts: 46 applications (n=498).
| Region | Adverts | Median applications |
|---|---|---|
| London | 59 | 89 |
| North West England | 88 | 53 |
| East of England | 59 | 52 |
| East Midlands | 41 | 49 |
| Wales | 30 | 48.5 |
| Scotland | 18 | 39 |
| West Midlands | 26 | 34.5 |
| South East England | 67 | 33 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 46 | 25.5 |
| South West England | 37 | 24 |
| North East England | 4 | under the reporting floor (4 adverts) |
| Northern Ireland | 7 | under the reporting floor (7 adverts) |
| Not stated or ambiguous | 16 | 58 |
Applications per advert by sector
Sector is read from the job title by a published keyword map; 60% of adverts map to one of thirteen sectors and the rest are shown as "other", never forced into a sector.
| Sector | Adverts | Median applications | Middle half | Under 5 applications | Median stated salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT & technology | 16 | 74 | 34–142.3 | 6% | £35,000 (£28,000–£41,000, n=15) |
| Transport & logistics | 96 | 43.5 | 19–104 | 5% | £30,000 (£27,000–£38,000, n=90) |
| Manufacturing | 57 | 43 | 20–65 | 12% | £31,000 (£28,000–£33,000, n=51) |
| Accountancy & finance | 80 | 42.5 | 11.8–91 | 15% | £36,000 (£30,000–£48,000, n=73) |
| Charity & community | 8 | 40 | 31.8–51 | 13% | £26,000 (£25,000–£26,000, n=8) |
| Care & social care | 72 | 35 | 15.8–72.3 | 13% | £29,000 (£28,000–£37,000, n=71) |
| Building services & trades | 110 | 19 | 7.3–33 | 20% | £40,000 (£36,000–£44,000, n=103) |
| Construction & property | 70 | 18.5 | 8.3–40 | 19% | £40,000 (£33,000–£46,000, n=65) |
| Sales engineering | 9 | 16 | 11–58 | 22% | £39,000 (£33,000–£41,000, n=9) |
| Utilities & infrastructure | 15 | 16 | 8–19 | 20% | £38,000 (£34,000–£41,000, n=15) |
| Engineering | 71 | 15 | 6–41.5 | 21% | £40,000 (£35,000–£45,000, n=68) |
| Legal | 68 | 11 | 3–32.8 | 35% | £40,000 (£29,000–£45,000, n=58) |
| Insurance & financial services | 16 | 10.5 | 3.8–23.5 | 44% | £31,000 (£30,000–£35,000, n=14) |
| Other roles (outside the thirteen sectors we classify) | 453 | 39 | 17–77 | 8% | £32,000 (£28,000–£39,000, n=413) |
Applications per advert by advertised salary
| Advertised salary | Adverts | Median applications | Under 5 applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under £20,000 | 8 | 44 | 25% |
| £20,000–£24,999 | 42 | 62 | 0% |
| £25,000–£29,999 | 277 | 55 | 7% |
| £30,000–£34,999 | 221 | 36 | 11% |
| £35,000–£39,999 | 173 | 18 | 20% |
| £40,000–£49,999 | 207 | 18 | 22% |
| £50,000–£59,999 | 78 | 18 | 21% |
| £60,000 and above | 47 | 15 | 30% |
| Hidden or not stated | 88 | 31.5 | 5% |
92% of adverts showed a salary. Adverts that showed pay drew a median of 30.5 applications (n=1,054) and those that hid it 32 (n=87) — a difference inside the margin of error, so we do not read anything into it. Observational: adverts that hide pay differ from those that show it in role and level, so this is not a controlled test of disclosure.
Time to fill
Median 42 days from brief to close across 46 filled roles (middle half 29.3–68.8; fastest 14, slowest 169). The typical fill had 26 candidates sourced and screened (middle half 17.3–40).
| Sector | Filled roles | Median days |
|---|---|---|
| Accountancy & finance | 5 | 29 |
| Legal | 3 | 32 |
| Building services & trades | 4 | 35 |
| Insurance & financial services | 3 | 40 |
| Utilities & infrastructure | 3 | 42 |
| Construction & property | 3 | 44 |
| Engineering & manufacturing | 3 | 60 |
| Care & social care | 4 | 63.5 |
| Precision machining & maintenance | 5 | 74 |
| Charity & community | 2 | under the reporting floor |
| Facilities & cleaning | 1 | under the reporting floor |
| Healthcare & clinical | 1 | under the reporting floor |
| IT & technology | 2 | under the reporting floor |
| Motor & automotive | 1 | under the reporting floor |
| Procurement & supply chain | 1 | under the reporting floor |
| Recruitment | 1 | under the reporting floor |
| Sales engineering | 2 | under the reporting floor |
| Transport & logistics | 2 | under the reporting floor |
Every one of these roles is published individually on the case studies, and the full sector table with ranges is on average time to fill by sector.
What an empty seat costs
Worked at this edition's medians, with the method behind our cost of vacancy calculator:
- Salary £34,000 (median stated salary, n=1,053 adverts); vacant 42 calendar days (median time to fill, n=46 filled roles) = 30 working days.
- Output per £1 of pay: 1.68, from the ONS labour share (FZLN, 2026 Q1: 59.7%) — ONS series, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Lost output £6,590, less salary not paid £3,920 = £2,670 net, about £440 a week.
| Trade group | Median stated salary | Median days to fill | Net cost of the vacancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction, property and building services | £40,000 | 44 | £3,290 |
| Accountancy, finance and financial services | £35,000 | 29 | £1,900 |
| Engineering, manufacturing and utilities | £36,000 | 60 | £4,040 |
Illustrative: it combines two medians from different datasets (advertised salary from adverts, time to fill from filled roles) with a whole-economy ONS factor. It is not a measured cost for any employer.
What this report does not measure
NOT MEASURED — the advert ledger records total applications per advert, not when each arrived. No estimate is published.
Not published — the filled-role set (n=46) is too small to split by region without every cell falling under the floor.
Not measured — the filled-role set contains only roles that were filled.
Methodology
Adverts. Every job advert placed through Talent Finder's own advertising account with a last post date from 3 October 2025 to 5 September 2026 — none newer than 28 days, so each completed its run. Of 1,930 adverts on the ledger, 1,141 qualify. Excluded: 557 posted before the period, 118 still running, 41 our own recruitment adverts, 0 test entries, 65 in the Republic of Ireland and 8 outside these islands. Applications are the count recorded against each advert in our applicant tracking system at the sweep of 2026-10-02 07:32:01.
Classification. Region from the advert's location text onto the twelve UK regions and nations (ambiguous place names are "not stated or ambiguous", never guessed). Sector from the job title by a keyword map. Salary is the midpoint of the advertised range, annualised at 1,950 hours or 260 days for hourly or daily rates; salary figures use stated salaries only and are rounded to the nearest £1,000.
Salary data. Every salary figure here is a salary stated on one of our own adverts. No Adzuna or other job-board salary data is used in this report; our separate salary checker, which reads live Adzuna adverts, is a different source and is not mixed in.
Reporting floors. A cell built on fewer than 8 adverts, 8 stated salaries or 3 filled roles publishes no figures; its count is still shown. This edition: 99 of 140 region × sector cells fall under the floor.
Change over time. Change over time is not published in this edition. It has been computed and checked, but its cause is not established, so it is held until it can be.
Time to fill. Filled roles published as anonymised case studies on this site: days from the role being opened to it being closed as filled. 46 roles. Not weighted, and not a survey of the market.
Recompute it. Every advert behind these figures is in the downloadable data under an anonymised identifier with its region, sector, salary band, rounded salary and application count, so any figure here can be recomputed.
Cite this
Free to quote in full or in part, including commercially, with attribution and a link. No permission needed.
Talent Finder, UK Hiring Pulse Q4 2026, talentfinderuk.co.uk/data/uk-hiring-pulse-q4-2026
The complete dataset is published as JSON at https://www.talentfinderuk.co.uk/data/uk-hiring-pulse-q4-2026.json. Journalists and researchers wanting a cut we have not published can email info@talentfinderuk.co.uk.
Frequently asked questions
How many applications does a UK job advert get?
In the 1,141 UK adverts Talent Finder placed between 3 October 2025 and 5 September 2026, the median advert drew 31 applications over its 28-day run, and the middle half drew between 11 and 66.
How long does it take to fill a vacancy in the UK?
Across 46 roles Talent Finder filled and published as case studies, the median time from brief to close was 42 days. This measures filled roles only; it is not a fill rate.
What does an unfilled vacancy cost a UK employer?
At the median advertised salary in this data (£34,000) and the median time to fill (42 days), the lost output net of the salary not paid is about £2,670, using the Office for National Statistics labour share (FZLN, 2026 Q1). It is an illustration, not a measured cost for any one employer.
Do higher-paid jobs get fewer applications?
Yes, in this data. Adverts at £60,000 and above drew a median of 15 applications (n=47); adverts at £25,000–£29,999 drew 55 (n=277).
How quickly does a job advert get its first application?
We do not publish that figure. Our advert ledger records the total applications each advert received, not when the first one arrived, so there is no measurement to report and we do not estimate one.
Related data
The rolling version of the response figures is the UK job advert response benchmark, with every sector, salary band and region pairing. Check what a role is being advertised at locally before you write the advert, and see all our open datasets on the recruitment data page.