FE News | New study reveals the best cities in the UK for job opportunities

New research has revealed which major cities in the UK offer the best job opportunities for the people who live and work in them.

HR software provider Ciphr studied 50 city-status locations and compared several factors, such as best employment opportunities for job seekers and career changers.

Life satisfaction and satisfaction, as well as housing affordability – to reflect the general well-being of the local population and the cost of living in the city – were also included as key indicators in determining the result.

The cities with the highest overall job vacancy rankings are Milton Keynes, Oxford, York, St Albans and Norwich.

Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire consistently scored well on a number of criteria, with a high average wage of £38,613 (the county’s average full-time wage is 17% above the UK average of £33,000, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics) and significant wage growth of 9.4% over the last 12 months (the UK average is 5.7%). The city also has a relatively low unemployment rate of 2.8% compared to the UK average of 3.7%.

The number of Milton Keynes-based businesses (with 10+ employees) is approximately 74.3 per 10,000 working-age adults and the number of job postings on Indeed is currently 201 per 10,000 working-age adults (the UK average is 68 and 183). per 10,000). However, the city is less competitive in terms of housing affordability, with typical homes costing an average of 9.1 times income and the average rental properties costing about 32% of gross wages.

Oxford, which ranked second overall, had the largest employment rate growth of any 50 cities, registering a 16.4% increase since 2021. It ranks third in terms of life satisfaction and happiness and has the fifth highest median salary at £36,692. While York in third place has the second-lowest unemployment rate at 2.2% and has a high number of job postings on Indeed with around 229 job postings per 10,000 working-age people.

Based on Ciphr’s study, the top 15 UK cities for job opportunities are:

Milton Keynes (#1 for vacancies)
Oxford (#1 for job growth and happiness)
York
St Albans (#1 for highest average salary and lowest unemployment rate)
Norwich
Cambridge (#1 for vacancies per person)
Colchester (#1 for salary growth)
Aberdeen
Bristol
coventry
leeds
Canterbury (#1 for life satisfaction)
Gloucester
Doncaster (#1 for affordable housing)
Wrexham

Best Paying Cities

For workers looking for the highest earning potential in 2023, St Albans may be a good choice – as the median full-time median salary is £46,551, 41% higher than the UK average. The second highest paid city is London with an average salary of £39,391, followed by Cambridge, Milton Keynes and Oxford.

However, when it comes to the best cities for anti-inflationary salary growth, the top 5 reads quite differently. Colchester and Chichester take the top two spots with 12.9% and 12.1% growth respectively since 2021, followed by Wrexham (11.5%), Salford (11.2%) and Portsmouth (10.7%). Notably, average salaries in these cities all hover around the UK average of £33,000.

The best cities for job seekers

For those currently looking for a job, there are more vacancies per person on Indeed in Cambridge, Exeter and Bristol than any other city in the study. Analysis of Indeed data suggests that there are currently around 396 job vacancies per 10,000 working-age people in Cambridge, 373 in Exeter and 326 in Bristol (the UK average is 183).

After Cambridge, Exeter and Bristol, other UK cities with the most Rank vacancies highest. , Preston (247) and York (229).

Cities with the most employers

Business density – the number of businesses per capita – is another leading indicator of strong local economic activity, as this usually means there are more employers (and more job opportunities) in the region. According to research by Ciphr, Winchester has the highest enterprise density at 168.1, which means there are over 168 employers (employing 10+ employees) for every 10,000 working-age residents (including micro-enterprises with 5+ employees). number rises to 296 per 10,000).

Chichester has the second highest number of businesses at 93.9 per 10,000, followed by Belfast (83.7), London (81.6) and St Albans (81.1). The UK average is 68 per 10,000.

The cheapest cities to buy or rent

While labor market conditions and job availability are important considerations for anyone looking to change jobs, relocate or return to employment, a city’s affordability can have a large impact on how far wages range – especially given current costs – Living Crisis. Remote and hybrid work may allow many more people to live farther from their place of work than they used to, but working in an office or on site (part or all of the time) is still the norm for the majority of UK workers (A ciphr survey of 1,000 UK adults last year found only around 11% of employees are 100% remote).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cities with cheaper housing costs (whether people want to buy or rent) are in the Midlands or the North of England – in Doncaster, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Hull and Bradford.

At the other end of the scale, housing in London, Oxford, Brighton and Hove, Cambridge, Bristol and Winchester is the least affordable (relative to average wages).

The best city for renters is Hull, as the average rent is around 20% of the average salary – leaving 80% for other expenses. The most expensive is Edinburgh, where the rent-to-income ratio is 46%.

The best city for homebuyers is Belfast, where the average property is £156,161 (according to Rightmove), which is 5.2 times the median income. In comparison, people living in London need 18.9 times the average salary to buy an average property priced at £743,738.

Britain’s happiest cities

Based on the results of the Office for National Statistics’ most recent annual survey of personal well-being, residents of Winchester, Lancaster and Oxford enjoy higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness than any city in the study, with an average score of about 15.5 out of 20.

Canterbury and Lancaster residents are the happiest overall (both 7.91 out of 10), while Oxford residents are the happiest (7.71 out of 10).

Ciphr ranked 50 of the UK’s largest cities (in terms of total population) on nine weighted metrics – employment rate growth, unemployment rate, business density, job vacancies, average salary, wage growth, life satisfaction and happiness, rent affordability and home affordability – by the to identify the best UK cities for job opportunities.

Full results are available at https://www.ciphr.com/best-uk-cities-for-job-opportunities-2023.

More than 600 organizations use Ciphr’s integrated HR and workforce management solutions to manage, retain and engage employees more effectively – while reducing administrative burdens for busy HR teams.

For more information on Ciphr’s human resource management solutions, visit www.ciphr.com.