British employers are offering almost a third fewer summer jobs this year than in 2025, adding to the challenges facing young people struggling to get a foothold in the job market, figures from recruitment platform Indeed showed on Wednesday.
The 31% drop in summer jobs is much sharper than for overall vacancies which are down 11% year-on-year in Indeed’s data as of May 22 and 7% in official data for the three months to April.
“Employers are navigating a difficult environment and they’re responding by pulling back on junior hiring in particular,” Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, said.
Following are more details from the release and wider context about the jobs market:
- Summer job vacancies are down 71% from their peak in 2023, according to Indeed
- The biggest falls in vacancies are for summer teaching jobs – typically at English-language schools, tutoring and sports camps – while hospitality vacancies showed less decline
- Indeed defined summer jobs as those with “summer” in the job title, excluding summer internships and similar roles
- Recruitment and Employment Confederation data earlier this week showed a big rise in temporary hiring at the expense of permanent roles due to uncertainty over the Iran war
- Over 1 million Britons aged 16-24 are not in employment, education or training, one in eight of the age group, and a government report has warned this could rise to one in six
- Businesses blame the narrowing differential between the minimum wage for 18-20 year olds and older workers; economists say the evidence is not conclusive.
(Reporting by David MillikenEditing by William Schomberg)
