How to get a job in the UK in a competitive market

It's true that getting a job right now in the UK is feeling harder than usual for a lot of people. You're not imagining it, but all is not lost. In this blog post, I'll talk about a few factors feeding into this situation and then cover some tips for you to consider.

As always, if you are seeking help navigating a career change or the job hunt, get in touch for one to one coaching at becky@rgcareercoaching.com

Landing a job is still possible, let's look at how.

According to the CIPD Autumn 2025 labour market outlook, the labour market is indeed cooling in the UK. They say it has stabilised in terms of it hasn't fallen lower than the previous quarter, but that is unlikely to make you feel any better!

They're still describing it as an 'unparalleled low outside of the pandemic' however say from their data that across the public sector, employers are expecting their staffing levels to fall rather than grow, with a small expectation for staffing levels to rise in the private sector.

We remember the National Insurance Contributions rise last year in the UK and it is true, this did have an impact on the budgets of businesses and how they then decided to balance the books. In some cases this meant reducing their staff levels.

The job market for graduates and early career professionals

If you are early in your career this part is crucial: they say that employers using AI more in their business are more likely to reduce the number of junior roles.

Add that together with the Institute for Student Employers saying that the graduate labour market shrunk by about 7% in 2025, this is unfortunate news for graduates and early career professionals.

However, around 50% of employers who do use AI are saying they are not planning on reducing their headcount, so it is not yet an automatic guarantee of a reduction in available jobs. Yet.

An industry recruitment intention snapshot from the CIPD report.

So what can you do to increase your chances of getting a job in the UK?

• Select a career and industry strategically, not randomly

• Be as close to perfect as you can be at each recruitment stage of applications and interviews to be a competitive candidate, and get help from coaches like me to maximise this!

• Utilise all methods of job hunting

So, yes, I am shamelessly plugging my services, but here is the thing...qualified and accredited careers professionals do not make money from you having to see them repeatedly for the rest of your life.

We have a code of ethics, and we teach you how to succeed at each recruitment stage, so that you can replicate this over and again.

Then if you wish to come back after a few years for a refresher, no problem.

What are the other methods of job hunting?

Well, there are 3 approaches to opportunity hunting in the UK:

• Applying online (the classic)

• Networking

• Speculative applications

Over 50% of the UK labour market consists of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), who essentially are all the other companies that are not the big multinational household names.

When these lesser known companies are small enough, they may have no formal HR or recruiter working for them...and so they may never advertise.

This is why in order for you to access the whole labour market, you need to do a bit of all 3 of the approaches!

In tough labour market times, flexing your approach accordingly is key.

So get in touch on becky@rgcareercoaching.com for support in doing everything mentioned in this blog post.