According to the Office for National Statistics in the UK, the country’s labour market remains strong. Even though the unemployment rates in 2023 remained largely unchanged (4.2%), there was a 7.3% growth in the salary range. Also, the number of paid employees saw an increase — in October 2025 alone, 39,000 job opportunities were created.
Meanwhile, national data is not always enough to provide an objective assessment of the different cities. So we have decided to analyze our internal data to find out the best UK cities with most job offers. As a platform helping recruiters to search for potential human talents, SignalHire enables us to analyze searches and provide some data statistics. These data not only consist of the number of searches overall through SignalHire, but also more specific ones like job title or city and a bunch of other parameters that are significant for the employers.
For making this post we examined the search history of our recruitment database for which positions were most in demand in autumn 2025. More importantly, where did these job opportunities emerge? This provided a factual account of the job thesaurus terms most commonly associated with openings that recruiters were calling up to fill, at the end of 2023.
So, for the very best UK cities to work in, read our research – because never forget: the numbers don’t lie!
1. London
Job Growth: 3.4%
Average Annual Salary: £44,370
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: Sales Manager, Data Engineer, Business Development Manager
London is one of the world’s dominant finance hubs, which is why it is not surprising that sales managers are in such demand in the city. As one of the largest trade centres in the world, London offers plenty of job openings in the sales niche, ranging from relatively modest positions to highly demanding jobs that involve selling to C-level executives in major international corporations.
Naturally however, a city with such an extensive and colourful history as London still needs to stay relevant to the present — UK capital’s IT sphere is flourishing too. Since they report that demand for these professionals is a third on the list of the most wanted vacancies in London, data engineers will find one of the best places to work and live. Does it is a surprise, though — this role relates to business development of course — which means (in short) managing and running data pipelines that are later used to optimize lots of corporate processes, sales included.
And, as so many jobs in London are business and trade-related qualified business development managers also get in to the top three on this list of most popular jobs in this buzzing hub.
2. Edinburgh
Job Growth: 1.6%
Average Annual Salary: £34,000
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: Data Engineer, Business Analyst, Software Developer
While the sales sector may not be as abundant in Scotland’s capital city as it is over in England, it does have one of the best tech scenes within all UK cities. Edinburgh’s most in-demand job is data engineer, closely followed by business analyst. Again, there is a clear link — business analytics is what helps companies thrive, and therefore, no matter how different these two professions are with regards to the aspects of growing a business that they address, they remain linked.
Software developer is the third most highly demanded jobs in Edinburgh. The breadth of technologies required can differ from employer to employer. Edinburgh boasts a variety of industries with large companies include Deloitte, Ernst & Young and Tesco, meaning that if you are a qualified developer, there is plenty to keep you occupied.
3. Cambridge
Job Growth: 8.5%
Average Annual Salary: £36,000
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: Software Developer, Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET), DevOps Engineer
Cambridge has registered the most unprecedented job growth rate of this decade — primarily in corporate employment and IT. Clarity: All the most preferred Jobs in this city are IT and Software Development niche jobs. The total job growth rate sits at a healthy 8.5% — however, in knowledge-intensive sectors (specifically IT and high-tech manufacturing), that growth increases to nearly 11%, making Cambridge a winner for job applicants in the tech sector across UK cities.
Even at Cambridge, which like most other IT hubs offers a lot of hybrid work options with remote time together with regular office jobs, qualified developers tend to be requested to apply for full-time in-house wages. And they likely should, given such an incredible upswelling in job opportunities — one needs to ride this wave before it recedes!
4. Manchester
Job Growth: 3.9-4.2%
Average Annual Salary: £31,000
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: B2B Marketing Manager, Finance Officer, Dentist
With a large economy, Manchester and the surrounding areas of Greater Manchester are also among the best places in England to find work in business and finance. International companies with branches in this city include Amazon, Deloitte, Bosch — and more recently Manchester is the European HQ for Etihad Airways, Adidas and Siemens — to name a few world-renowned businesses from several niches. This means experts in the realms of B2B marketing and finance will feel right at home here.
Well, that’s the case because Manchester is in the market for dentists — this profession is the third most demanded job in this area. Well, that could be thanks to the generous dentist and health care packages at all those companies around the world. But kidding aside, the University of Manchester boasts one of the leading faculties of biology, medicine and health in the UK — and many private health professionals are seeking qualified staff.
5. Belfast
Job Growth: 2.4%
Average Annual Salary: £30,000
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: Chief Director, Payroll Specialist, Human Resources Specialist
Northern Ireland is home to one of the UK’s fastest-growing economies, with its capital understandably providing the most job opportunities of anywhere in the region. Belfast was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with a major decline in economic activity. But now the town is on an upward trend once again, and most businesses are actively searching for chief directors when it comes to honing their business operations.
In addition, there are lots of job offers in Belfast for payroll and human resources specialists — a reliable sign that the opportunities are increasing. According to the history, Belfast was among the best cities for jobs in financial and tech, hence, most probably HRs will be involving themselves in these niches. Among the best Belfast companies can be Random Holdings, Danske Bank, Alma Group and many more.
6. Oxford
Job Growth: 1.1%
Average Annual Salary: £35,000
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: Software Developer, DevOps Engineer, User Experience Designer
Situated around an iconic University that stretches back centuries, Oxford is not as traditional as you might think it would be. Indeed the whole of Oxfordshire is home to innovative companies changing the tech landscape — and literally the planet. Some of the most advanced developments in Europe in robotics and high-tech manufacturing are being carried out on the Oxford: none could exist without highly-trained and imaginative IT staff.
All of Oxford’s top five in-demand jobs are in the IT and tech niche, with software developers and engineers leading the pack. But user experience designers can also work in the city, too; this job ranked third in terms of the number of available jobs. Overall, Oxford is becoming a new center of creative tech innovation and one of the best places to take a job as such.
7. Nottingham
Job Growth: 2.1%
Average Annual Salary: £30,000
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: B2B Marketing Manager, Marketing & Business Development, Technician Electronic
Looking at more recent data from the Office for National Statistics, Nottingham saw an increase in its unemployment rate in mid-2023 (relative to 2022). Conversely, this city also has the highest percentage of new job openings — B2B marketing managers and business developers are the most sought-after professions here. It appears that Nottingham is set for an economic shake-up as more of us can find international career options in the city.
Top Nottingham employers already include major finance enterprises like Capital One, Deloitte and Experian. As shown by the multitude of vacancies in the sector, this trend will continue and it seems that Nottingham’s days as a go-to destination for jobs in finance outside London are numbered. Lastly, electronics technicians is also the 3rd most demanded occupational group; Hence, more job prospects will be available for professionals in Nottingham.
8. Bristol
Job Growth: 1.7%
Average Annual Salary: £35,000
Top 3 In-Demand Jobs in the City: Business Analyst, Data Modeler, Data Scientist
Bristol – The UK’s major business hubs with a lot of opportunities in finance, tech and IT niches. Like other UK cities to search for work in on this list, businesses in Bristol are always looking for business analysts and big data specialists who can guarantee steady corporate growth. Some of the most notable companies in this city include: Airbus Operations, Royalty Pharma, Ovo Group Ltd., Brent Cars Limited, and more. Thus, business analysts and developers working in Bristol will not be limited only to the tech and financial domain.
Methodology
SignalHire is a recruiting database that allows for both individual and bulk searches based on job title, location, and other parameters. In this study, we have gathered all job opening queries submitted through our database in fall 2023. Then, we have narrowed it down to searches in the United Kingdom only. This provided a list of all job postings UK recruiters were seeking to fill from September 2023 through November 2023.
Next, we filtered all UK finds to cities by the total count of searches for each. This enabled us to narrow the list down to eight cities, for which different specialists were searched the most. In addition, we have further analyzed each of the shortlisted locations to see which job titles were most sought after in each city to also get hold of data on the top 3 in-demand jobs for a given city.
Finally, we shared our findings for where the best places to work in the UK are according to how many total searches there were in each city, ordered from most to least. Details on job growth rates for each of the aforementioned cities as well as average salaries were sourced from official UK government and statistical resource websites, alongside several job aggregators and platforms which store salary range data. Those ranges refer only to base salaries, not bonuses; actual annual earnings are likely to exceed those amounts. Data on recent developments in the job market across each city was sourced from news and public resources.
Conclusion
Especially in finance, IT and high-tech manufacturing, UK’s economy is seeking. To shed more light on this, the eight cities above — London unsurprisingly topping the table — provide the best working opportunities within these niches. Even so, the United Kingdom has plenty of other delightful places to live and work. SignalHire being one of the most prominent SaaS software solutions for recruiters keeps a close eye on international employment trends, and you can always find the latest statistics in our blog. So, stick around to unlock all the new updates about HR, sales and business — it’ll be a fun ride!
