The number of graduate job vacancies has dropped by almost half in a single year, hitting its lowest point since records began, as employers pull back on entry-level hiring and cite the rising cost of taking on junior staff.
Jobs website Adzuna recorded just 8,383 graduate vacancies in July 2026, down from 15,397 in July 2025. The firm said the figure is the lowest it has logged since it began tracking graduate roles in 2016. To put that in context, Adzuna recorded a peak of more than 55,800 graduate listings on its website in 2017, more than six times the number available last month.
Why graduate job vacancies are dropping so sharply
Employers have pointed to two main pressures. Increases to employer national insurance contributions and the minimum wage have made hiring more expensive, especially for junior and entry-level positions. At the same time, a growing number of businesses are turning to artificial intelligence to handle tasks that would previously have been filled by new graduates.
Andrew Hunter, the co-founder of Adzuna, said the figures show that ’employers still haven’t found a reason to open up hiring’ for people who have recently left university.
Competition for the roles that do exist is also stiffening. Adzuna found an average of 2.14 job seekers per vacancy in July, up from 1.93 at the same point a year earlier, a trend that cuts across all experience levels, not just graduates.
A generation locked out: the NEET crisis in numbers
The graduate jobs picture sits within a broader crisis for young people in the UK. The youth unemployment rate (covering those aged 16 to 24) stood at 16.2% in the three months to March 2026. The number of young people classified as not in education, employment or training, known as Neet, has now passed one million.
Young people who have spoken to BBC News described applying for hundreds of positions without receiving a single response. Many also expressed frustration at the rising use of AI to screen job applications before a human ever reads them.
Former government minister Alan Milburn is leading a major review of the youth unemployment crisis. He has previously said the number of entry-level jobs is shrinking, alongside the part-time roles traditionally taken by teenagers and students.
In May 2026, Milburn published an interim report that reached a stark conclusion: the rise in NEETs was the result of ‘a whole system failure,’ according to the UK Parliament work and pensions committee report. His review did not point to a single cause but diagnosed failures across education, employment support and health services working together.
One element of that picture stands out. Milburn described ill health as ‘the new kid on the block,’ and told the committee that over the last ten years there had been a 70% increase in the number of Neets with a work-limiting condition. That finding aligns with separate research from the Resolution Foundation, which found that economic trends accounted for around half of the rise in the Neet rate, while ‘broader health trends since the pandemic’ corresponded closely with the remaining increase in youth inactivity.
What government and employers are doing
The Adzuna data did show some brighter spots. Vacancies in travel, teaching and construction rose in recent weeks. Healthcare, nursing, hospitality and logistics, however, posted fewer openings.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has changed the rules for public contracts, requiring companies bidding for government work to show how they will create jobs and training opportunities.
A UK Government spokesperson said on Monday: ‘The latest figures show there are 253,000 more people in work than this time last year with unemployment continuing to fall. We are determined to go further to restore opportunity for young people through our £2.5 billion youth employment package which will deliver almost one million opportunities to earn or learn.’
Milburn’s full review is expected to follow the interim report, with its recommendations set to address the combination of economic, structural and health factors his team has identified as driving the crisis.
