How many significant roles do UK companies post each week?

In the week 9 to 16 October 2026, Lockley's index recorded 360 significant roles posted by UK companies. The week before, 2 to 9 October 2026, it recorded 462. The source is job postings, using Jobs data from Adzuna, and the counts are by the date on the record.

What counts as significant

These are the roles Lockley treats as a signal of change, not every vacancy. A senior or specialist role, or a first hire in a function, says more about where a company is heading than a routine replacement does. The separate first-of-function count is a narrower subset of the same idea: a company hiring, for the first time, someone to run a function such as finance, IT or sales.

The figures here are Lockley's own counts of what its index has read. They are not a measure of the whole UK jobs market, and we do not claim they are.

Why it matters to different sellers

Recruiters use a posting as the reason to call the employer: the role is open, dated and visible. Sellers of software, services and equipment use it differently. A company that has just posted its first IT role may be ready to talk about managed services, and one hiring a head of operations may be reviewing its suppliers.

In both cases the useful question is what the hire implies about spending, and the posting is the evidence you can cite in the first sentence of the call.

What the count does not tell you

A posting shows that a company wants someone, not that it has money to spend elsewhere. Some postings are repeated by agencies, some stay up long after the role is filled, and some are for roles that say little about the company's direction. That is why Lockley counts significant roles rather than every advert.

Use the count to size your pool and the individual posting to decide whether to call. If the role matches what you sell to, call. If it does not, move on to the next company on the list.

Reading a fall from 462 to 360

A drop of that size in one week is not enough to call a downturn. Postings are dated when they appear, and weekly counts are lumpy. Look across a month before you adjust your plans, and keep calling from the pool: 360 roles is still a large number of companies with a dated reason to talk.

Check the posting before you call

Open the posting, note the date and the exact wording, and confirm the company is still active on Companies House. Every Lockley finding links to the record it came from for this reason. A call that begins with the real role title is easier to take than one that begins with a guess.

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