UK Staffing Pay & Demand Index — 2026-Q3
Median advertised hourly rates and live vacancy volumes across the sectors we staff. Compiled by Gangal Recruitment Ltd from live job-board data. Free to reuse with attribution.
What this is
We staff cleaning, demolition, general labour, warehouse and hospitality roles across the UK, so we watch what those roles actually advertise for. This index publishes the median advertised hourly rate and the number of live vacancies per sector and location, rebuilt each quarter.
Method. Rates are the median of advertised hourly rates from live Adzuna and Reed listings. Annual salaries are excluded from the hourly median rather than converted, because advertised salary fields mix hourly and annual figures in the same place. Any sector/location with fewer than 8 usable adverts is withheld instead of shown — 28 rows met that bar this quarter. We publish the sample size for every row so you can judge it yourself.
Median advertised hourly rate by sector and location
| Sector | Location | Median advertised rate | Live vacancies | Adverts sampled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning | London | £14.50 | 4,535 | 98 |
| Cleaning | Liverpool | £14.25 | 521 | 126 |
| Cleaning | Belfast | £14.25 | 85 | 10 |
| Cleaning | Newcastle | £14.00 | 337 | 86 |
| Cleaning | Nottingham | £13.45 | 626 | 110 |
| Cleaning | Bristol | £13.45 | 807 | 92 |
| Cleaning | Glasgow | £13.45 | 177 | 69 |
| Cleaning | Cardiff | £13.33 | 105 | 61 |
| Cleaning | Leeds | £13.25 | 466 | 92 |
| Cleaning | Sheffield | £13.15 | 310 | 128 |
| Cleaning | Manchester | £13.15 | 1,327 | 108 |
| Cleaning | Birmingham | £13.15 | 1,630 | 81 |
| General labour | Liverpool | £17.05 | 65 | 8 |
| General labour | Newcastle | £16.94 | 61 | 14 |
| General labour | Leeds | £16.88 | 160 | 8 |
| General labour | London | £16.80 | 1,530 | 15 |
| General labour | Nottingham | £15.78 | 99 | 10 |
| General labour | Manchester | £14.00 | 213 | 12 |
| Warehouse | Nottingham | £14.39 | 110 | 30 |
| Warehouse | Bristol | £13.45 | 115 | 55 |
| Warehouse | London | £13.35 | 2,239 | 74 |
| Warehouse | Leeds | £13.32 | 145 | 58 |
| Warehouse | Glasgow | £13.22 | 86 | 17 |
| Warehouse | Liverpool | £13.11 | 111 | 76 |
| Warehouse | Birmingham | £13.00 | 104 | 44 |
| Warehouse | Manchester | £12.85 | 230 | 86 |
| Warehouse | Sheffield | £12.71 | 51 | 35 |
| Warehouse | Newcastle | £12.71 | 54 | 16 |
Median of advertised hourly rates only. Rows with fewer than 8 usable adverts are withheld rather than shown, and annual salaries are excluded from the hourly median. Source: Gangal Recruitment Ltd analysis of live Adzuna and Reed listings.
Where the workforce actually is (ONS BRES)
Employee counts by sector and local authority, from the ONS Business Register and Employment Survey. Shown for the 25 largest concentrations in our sectors; the full dataset covers 380 local authorities.
| Sector | Local authority | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Health | Birmingham | 98,000 |
| Accommodation food | Westminster | 97,000 |
| Health | Leeds | 69,000 |
| Business admin support | Westminster | 67,000 |
| Business admin support | Dacorum | 65,000 |
| Business admin support | City of London | 64,000 |
| Business admin support | Leeds | 63,000 |
| Health | City of Edinburgh | 57,000 |
| Health | Liverpool | 55,000 |
| Health | Manchester | 54,000 |
| Education | Birmingham | 54,000 |
| Health | Camden | 52,000 |
| Business admin support | Manchester | 52,000 |
| Retail | Westminster | 52,000 |
| Business admin support | Birmingham | 49,000 |
| Health | Bristol, City of | 48,000 |
| Health | Sheffield | 45,000 |
| Education | Leeds | 45,000 |
| Education | Manchester | 43,000 |
| Health | Westminster | 42,000 |
| Health | Newcastle upon Tyne | 41,000 |
| Accommodation food | Birmingham | 41,000 |
| Education | Camden | 41,000 |
| Retail | Birmingham | 40,000 |
| Health | Lambeth | 40,000 |
Figures are employee counts on 2021 Local Authority District boundaries and are not directly comparable with the advert volumes above, which are keyed on advertised city names. Source: ONS Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) via Nomis. Crown Copyright. Licensed under the Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0.
Citing this index
Free to quote, chart or reuse for any purpose, including commercially, with a link back to this page. No permission needed.
Gangal Recruitment Ltd (2026-Q3) UK Staffing Pay & Demand Index. Available at: https://gangalrecruitment.com/uk-staffing-pay-index
Journalists and researchers who need a breakdown we have not published — a specific city, sector or a longer time series — can request it from support@gangalrecruitment.com.
Advertised-rate figures are Gangal Recruitment Ltd analysis of live Adzuna and Reed listings and describe what roles are advertised at, not what any individual employer pays. Rebuilt quarterly.