ISSUE NO. 27 · WEDNESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2026

Hiring grew for the first time in four years while vacancies hit a twelve-year low, a private share market that keeps drawing banks, and an audience of 5.4m that has yet to become a business

707,000. That is where UK job vacancies landed last month, the lowest outside the pandemic since November 2014. In the same report, permanent placements came in at 50.5 — above the neutral mark, and the first growth in permanent hiring since September 2022. Two numbers, two directions, and the whole question is which one is the signal.

That shape repeats across today’s issue. London’s public market has managed one sizeable IPO this year while the private venue beside it keeps attracting banks. Zoopla has grown a valuation-led audience 39 per cent to 5.4m people and still earns £83.2m against Rightmove’s £425m. In each case something genuinely turned, and in each case the thing that turned is not yet the thing that pays.

Below in full: what a 34th consecutive month of falling demand sits next to, why JP Morgan wants a seat on an off-market platform, and what an audience is worth before anybody pays for it. After those, the numbers, today’s diary, and one calculator worth five minutes.

Lead

Vacancies fell to their lowest non-pandemic level since 2014. Permanent hiring grew for the first time in nearly four years.

Both of those came out of the same report. Overall demand for workers fell for a 34th consecutive month, taking vacancies to 707,000 — but permanent placements reached 50.5, crossing back above the neutral line for the first time since September 2022. Temporary billings expanded faster still at 52.4, which tells you employers are hiring again but hedging while they do it, reaching for short-term contracts rather than committing. Staff availability rose at its quickest rate in three months, so there are more people looking. Read together, the honest summary is narrow: the floor stopped dropping. That is a real change after nearly three years of falling, and it is not the same as a recovery. Whether anyone builds on it shows up in the autumn readings, not this one. Read the full story →

The Numbers

Bank Rate is 3.75% with eight days to the 17 September decision, and CPI is still July’s 2.9%. The vacancies card is today’s lead in one figure, and it is worth reading against the placements number underneath it rather than on its own. The index closed Monday almost exactly where it ended last week.

More News

The London Stock Exchange has hosted one sizeable IPO this year. The queue to trade shares off-market keeps growing.

JP Morgan is seeking approval to broker deals as a registered auction agent on Pisces, joining Bank of America and Rothschild. That is the part worth watching, more than any single transaction on the platform: banks follow fees and fees follow volume, so three of them lining up says something about where the volume is expected to be. The deals so far are not small — Wayve staff sold around £62.8m of shares in July, and Moneybox followed with a £45m sale that valued the fintech at £800m. London now runs two venues for company shares, one public and one not, and only one of them is growing. Which one the good companies choose is the question the next set of deals answers. Read the full story →

Zoopla has stopped chasing people who want to move. It is chasing the 5.4m who want to know what the neighbours are worth.

The valuation-led audience grew 39 per cent to reach that number, and it is a genuinely clever way in: curiosity is far cheaper to buy than intent, and it brings people back between moves rather than once a decade. The financials have improved with it, from a £5.2m loss to a £13.3m pre-tax profit in 2025. But revenue still slipped, to £83.2m — and that is the figure to hold against Rightmove, which posted £290m in pre-tax profit and grew revenue 9 per cent to £425m. An audience is not a business until somebody pays for it. Zoopla has built the first half of the machine and the conversion work is barely started. Read the full story →

On the Diary

• Today, 9.30am BST — Musculoskeletal treatment waiting times and labour market outcomes. An unusual ONS release linking NHS waits to whether people are working. Set it against today’s lead: one explanation for why demand for workers can fall for 34 months while people struggle to fill roles.
• Tomorrow, 9.30am BST — Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators. The fastest series the ONS publishes, and the nearest thing to a live look at spending.
• Tomorrow, 9.30am BST — Experiences of NHS healthcare services in England. The companion read to the waiting-times work above.

The Toolbox

One tool from the site each issue, picked to fit what has just happened. Free, no sign-up, and it shows its workings.

UK take-home pay calculator

“Permanent hiring has grown for the first time since 2022. If an offer lands this autumn, the number that matters is not the salary on the letter but what actually reaches your account.”

The Close

Each of today’s stories offers you two numbers and asks you to pick. Vacancies at a twelve-year low, or permanent hiring growing for the first time since 2022. One IPO on the public market, or three investment banks queueing for a seat on the private one. An audience of 5.4m, or revenue of £83.2m against a rival’s £425m. The tempting move is to choose whichever number suits the argument you already had. The more useful habit is to notice that in all three the leading indicator has turned and the lagging one has not, which is exactly what the beginning of a change looks like — and also exactly what a false start looks like. The difference only becomes visible later. Eight days to the Bank Rate decision, forty-nine to the Budget, and both of those will be decided by people reading the same two numbers.

If something here is wrong, or there is something you want dug into, just reply. It comes straight to me.

MJB