Job vacancies have fallen to 781,000 in the first three months of 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics.
That’s a decrease of around 22,000 from the three month-rolling average of November-January and the lowest first quarter for jobs since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.
Carys Ford, 22, has been applying for thousands of jobs since the start of 2024.
Ford said: “It is defeating. Applying for jobs has become a full time job for me at this point. It is draining and disheartening.”
Jobs have significantly reduced over the last three years, ONS data shows.
An estimated figure of vacancies fell in the UK by 42,000 on the quarter, 5.3% to 761,000 in February to April of this year, reportedly by the ONS to be the 34th consecutive quarterly decline.
Jobs as a whole were down by 14.7% in February to April 2025, a total of 131,000 compared to a year ago with 34,000, a percentage of 4.3 under their pre-Covid 19 figures from January to March of 2020.
Robbin Schuchmann, the Co-founder of EOR Overview said: “Businesses have been holding back on new hiring due to ongoing economic uncertainty.
“The UK faced a technical recession at the end of 2023, and even though growth has slightly picked up in early 2024, confidence hasn’t fully returned.
“We’re in a cycle where stability and long-term thinking matter more than constant recruitment.”
The number of employees declined by almost 33,000 in April, following a decrease of 47,000 in March, according to UK tax authority data.
Ford said: “Older generations cannot afford to retire.
“With the retirement age and the cost of living constantly rising with no signs of slowing, people are not in a position to retire and if they are, there is a growing anxiety around their security in doing so.
“Less people retiring mean less and less opportunities opening up for younger generations at the bottom of the ladder.
“Most companies just ignore you, if they do manage to dignify you with a reply, it is a generic one, which is always something along the lines of ‘Thank you for replying, we have decided to go ahead with other candidates, we wish you the best with your future endeavours’.”
Over the last three years, jobs have reduced significantly, and over the last year, vacancies have reduced up to around 1,276,000 from January to March of 2022, to 781,000 jobs in January to March of 2025, according to ONS data.
This continued decline in job vacancies over the past three years signals how deep-rooted this issue is, and how those unemployed will continue to struggle if the amount of job vacancies available doesn’t increase.
The dip in vacancies from 2020 to 2021 results from the Covid-19 pandemic which continues to have a huge lasting impact on vacancies in the UK.
Ford also discussed how more companies are hiring internally rather than advertising externally to cut costs, and that as job opportunities arise online, job vacancies are abnormally competitive.
Some entry level jobs require applicants to have three to five years of experience.
Ford said: “That is not entry level. It is the same with graduate jobs, they are asking for the same level of experience.
“How do they expect me to have this many years experience when I have just graduated from my degree of three years?
“It’s just so unrealistic. They are simply looking for people who do not exist, the requirements are so unrealistic for most people.”
Some job advertisements are requiring people to cover multiple roles within one role for a low wage salary, which can be demeaning for people.
Reports from CharityJob show the number of jobs decreased from 46,346 in 2023 to 36,090 in 2024, with the number of paid jobs posted on their site decreasing by 20% from 2023.
Ford said: “Such a large number of people are stuck in this same cycle, and with the current political climate and the cost of living crisis, this job situation is putting more and more people in a vulnerable position.
“I am hearing of more and more people being let go and made redundant.”
Luke Todd works in Visitor Services, and said he’s received little or no feedback for most jobs he’s applied for, and that most workplaces are filling vacancies internally.
Todd said: “In my experiences, the challenges that I have faced include the difficulty in finding a job in a sector or utilising the skills that I have – many jobs feel like having to shoebox yourself in to a shape just so that you fit in with a particular person’s specification.”
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