The partnership sees Adzuna data exclusively powering a real-time national job vacancy index. This forms a key part of the ONS’ weekly ‘faster indicators’ report, an in-depth and up-to-the-minute study of the UK job market and the economic and social impact of Covid-19. 

Created by analysing over 36 million job adverts indexed by Adzuna during the period of February 2018 to May 2020, the report provides insights into how employer behaviour is changing in response to the pandemic. The ONS are set to publish this new ‘leading indicator’ data on a regular basis, alongside their traditional Labour Market Survey. 

The UK has seen a 58% drop in hiring activity over the last 2 months and as Britain ‘unlocks’ over the summer, a key priority for the government is to make data-driven decisions to get people back into work as quickly and efficiently as possible. Adzuna’s live data insights from over 50,000 British employers will give a week-by-week and sector-by-sector temperature reading of the hiring activity across the country. 

The move comes as part of a renewed ONS effort to continuously improve its data provision on the UK labour market, widening its reach and enhancing its source data on the most recent UK job vacancy count.

Adzuna, launched by the team behind Gumtree, Zoopla and Qype in 2011, has demonstrated impressive growth over the past 9 years, growing to more than 10 million monthly unique visitors across 16 countries. Adzuna is the market leader in giving users transparency about UK employment data – showing salary data for thousands of keyword and location combinations, providing Number 10 Downing Street with job market data and powering one of the UK government’s most used digital services, Find a Job. 

Doug Monro, co-founder & CEO of Adzuna, said: “Up to the minute data on job vacancies is at the very heart of what Adzuna do, and we are thrilled to be in a position to potentially help the country navigate this crisis. It’s a real testament to the incredible work of our team that the ONS now trusts our real-time job market data as an official government statistic – a rare feat for a tech startup. We have been collecting and analysing the UK job market data for almost a decade, and are proud to be doing our bit to get Britain working again.”

David Freeman, Head of Labour Market and Households at the Office for National Statistics, commented: “Adzuna has been a long standing partner of the ONS, and these valuable data are an important new addition to our latest reports. The rate of social and economic change since March has emphasised the need for ‘live’ employment data to supplement our existing surveys and give a more complete picture of how the labour market, and overall economy, is performing. It’s just one example of how the ONS has been working with businesses to mobile the power of data for public benefit during the pandemic.”