Last reviewed: 5 August 2026
We sell a documented way to hire, so it would be inconsistent to ask you to take our own figures
on trust. This page lists every statistic on our website with its source and publication date, so you
can check our working.
Not all evidence is equal, and we have not levelled it out. Official statistics from the Office for
National Statistics are the most reliable thing we cite. Employer surveys are good but are surveys.
Vendor benchmarks drawn from a supplier's own customer base are useful for direction but nothing more,
and where we have used one we say so rather than presenting it as settled fact.
Up to 280 applications per role
Homepage, statistics panel and "The problem"
Research published in 2026 reports employers receiving an average of 280 applications per
advertised role, up from around 125 in 2022. Professional roles are cited in the range of 250 to 300.
We publish this as "up to 280" rather than as an average, which is the more cautious of the two
readings of the same finding.
Source: Modern CV, UK Job Interview Statistics 2026, February 2026, with
corroborating reporting from Atlas Job, June 2026.
Type: Commercial aggregator combining published data with its own survey.
Not official statistics, so we treat the figure as indicative of scale rather than precise.
2.5 unemployed people per vacancy, up from 1.9
Homepage, statistics panel and "The problem"
Official labour market data for March to May 2026 gives a ratio of 2.5 unemployed people for every
job vacancy, compared with 1.9 for November 2024 to January 2025. We publish both periods rather than
only the comparison, so the gap between them can be checked.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Vacancies and jobs in the UK,
July 2026 release.
Type: Official statistics, updated monthly. The most reliable category of
source on this page.
Vacancies are at their lowest since 2021
Homepage, "The problem"
The same release reports 712,000 vacancies, the lowest level since early 2021 and 9.7% below where
vacancies stood before the pandemic. This is the other half of the picture above: applications per role
have risen partly because there are fewer roles, not only because more people are applying.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Vacancies and jobs in the UK,
July 2026 release.
Type: Official statistics, updated monthly.
One in three employers report hard-to-fill vacancies
Homepage, statistics panel and "The problem"
The Spring 2026 Labour Market Outlook reports around one in three employers, 33%, with
hard-to-fill vacancies. The British Chambers of Commerce separately reports 71% of firms experiencing
hiring difficulties in the first quarter of 2026, which is a larger number but answers a broader
question. We do not treat the two as interchangeable and we quote the narrower figure.
Source: CIPD Labour Market Outlook, Spring 2026.
Type: Survey of around 2,000 senior HR decision-makers, weighted to be
representative of UK employers. Published quarterly.
Application volume rose 93% in a year while the teams reading them shrank by around 14%
Homepage, "The problem"
Benchmarking published in 2026 reports application volume up 93% year on year, with talent
acquisition teams running around 14% smaller over the same period.
Source: Gem, 2026 Recruiting Benchmarks Report.
Type: Vendor benchmark drawn from the supplier's own customer base, which
skews towards larger employers already using applicant tracking software. This is the weakest source
on this page. We use it because the direction it shows is consistent with the official vacancy and
unemployment data above, not as evidence in its own right.
More than 40% of employers see a new recruit resign within twelve weeks
Homepage, "The problem"
The Resourcing and Talent Planning survey found more than a 40% chance of a new recruit resigning
within their first twelve weeks. We quote the twelve-week window rather than a first-year figure
because it is the better evidenced of the two and because it is the window a hiring manager can
actually feel.
Source: CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning report, 2024.
Type: Employer survey. Published in 2024, making it the oldest source cited
on this page.
Traditional agency fees of 15% to 20% of salary
Homepage, "The problem". Comparison also used on Services and pricing
Contingency recruitment fees in the UK typically run at 15% to 20% of first-year salary. This is
reported consistently across UK recruitment industry sources. It is the comparison we lead with,
because it is the alternative most of our clients are actually weighing us against.
Source: Evalua8, July 2026, alongside multiple UK recruitment industry
sources reporting the same range.
Type: Widely corroborated industry norm rather than a single study.
How we handle figures
Every statistic above is recorded in our internal claims register with its source, publisher and
publication date. If we cannot trace a figure to a named source, we do not publish it.
Where two credible figures exist for the same question, we publish the more conservative one, and
where a widely quoted number measures something narrower or broader than it appears to, we say so
above rather than borrowing its authority.
If you think we have got one of these wrong, or you want the underlying reference for any of them,
email info@intuihire.com
and we will either evidence it or correct it.
