Companies are becoming more secretive about wage offers in a cooling job market

Companies have become more secretive about wage offers, adding to signs of a potential job market cooling, new research suggests.

Just over half of UK job openings are now published without advertised salaries for the first time since registration began in 2016, as employers find it easier to fill vacancies, according to job site Adzuna.

The average time to fill a position has fallen to 35.4 days from 43.1 days a year ago, while advertised vacancies fell to just over 1 million from 1.17 million a year ago.

Vacancies have declined in most industries as companies become more cautious about hiring in a current economic slowdown.

Sectors that appear to be the exception are logistics, warehouses and retail, where the demand for talent remains high.

Despite the slowdown, advertised pay rates have continued to rise in July compared to last year – an average increase of 3.7 per cent to £37,750 – and remain at one of the highest levels since the start of 2021.

Advertised salaries are higher than last July for most industries, except for HR and recruiting, IT and science and quality assurance jobs, where wages fell by 6 percent, 4.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Social work, which is in high demand, has seen the biggest increase in advertised salaries – or 20.5 per cent to £33,577 on average compared to last year.

The report, which compiles every vacancy advertised online in the UK from more than 1,000 sources, says the overall state of the labor market remains tight.

It follows official figures showing that wage increases momentarily outpaced inflation, and consumer prices finally started to rise

However, Simon Lambert of This is Money explains that today’s workers are no better off than they were in March 2006, before the financial crisis.

The Bank of England is keeping a close eye on the labor market as it assesses how much further it needs to raise interest rates to curb high inflation.

Advertised salaries are higher than last July for most sectors, except for HR and recruiting, IT and science and quality assurance jobs

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: “Compared to last year, the power in the job market has shifted back to companies and we are seeing fewer job postings announcing pay as employers find it easier to fill positions.

“Against the backdrop of a slowing economy, declining pay transparency may also reflect increasing pressure to stick to tight budgets.

“Other employers may be concerned that it could expose existing unfair pay practices and lead current employees to question why they are not being paid the going rate.

“But make no mistake, declining wage transparency has very real social costs – widening the pay gap.”

Just over half of UK job openings now don’t include advertised salaries, the first time this has happened since registration began in 2016

Legal and logistical support of declining vacancies

Despite nearly all job sectors seeing job vacancies decline, some sectors bucked the trend in July.

Logistics and warehouse jobs saw the biggest increase in job openings, or an increase of nearly 4 percent, reversing a three-month decline.

Jobs in the legal sector rose 3.1 percent, while retail and industrial saw increases of 2.7 and 1 percent, respectively.

Education remains the largest recruiting sector on Adzuna with more than 120,000 job openings, or a 35 percent increase compared to July last year.

IT is the second-largest sector for hiring, with nearly 99,000 jobs available in the industry, though companies have curbed hiring over the past year, with a 42 percent drop in tech job openings.

Warehouse work is most in demand among job seekers using Adzuna, according to the website.

Truck driver is the second most trending job for the second month in a row, with social care positions also in high demand.