Most sought after job in the country pays much less than £20,000 a year

A new comprehensive report from leading UK based jobs search engine Adzuna reveals that the most sought-after job in the UK is an Emergency Ambulance Driver offering only £16,634 a year.

This insight comes from research analysing Adzuna’s 1.2 million open job adverts from June – December 2017 by looking into the job titles that have the highest propensity to be viewed (calculated as clicks/ads).

With recent news that the NHS ambulance service is short of almost 1,000 frontline staff, it’s encouraging to learn job seekers are most interested in joining the NHS’ road fleet. However, this salary is still markedly lower than the UK’s average advertised wage of £32,940, according to Adzuna’s January Job Market Report.

The second most popular job in the UK is a Non-Executive Director with an average pay packet of £32,952 showing the disparity between second and first position – an increase of £16,318. The third most sought after job is a Funeral Services Director averaging a salary of £23,672 with an Air Traffic Controller offering £32,959 coming in fourth and Fashion Model coming in fifth (no salary stated).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Emergency Ambulance Driver’s salary of £16,634 places in 76th place out of the top 100 most sought-after jobs when it comes to salary; with Chief Information Officer topping the list with the highest advertised salary of £100,441 within the top 100 most sought after jobs. Given organisations of all sizes are increasingly turning to data and data services to evolve their offering, and with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) deadline fast approaching on May 25th, it’s an appealing industry and job role to step into as organisations are clamouring to employee CIOs that can lead change management through this regulation, and will pay handsomely for it.

Top 10 Most Sought-after Jobs:

1. Emergency Ambulance Driver – £16,634
2. Non-Executive Director – £32,952
3. Funeral Services Director – £23,672
4. Air Traffic Controller – £32,959
5. Fashion Model – No Salary data
6. Rigger – £36,543
7. Mail Clerk – £16,575
8. Airport Baggage Handler – £17,246
9. Oil Rig Operative – £28,571
10. Librarian – £24,658

Doug Monro, co-founder of Adzuna, revealed: “Our data shows that the job market in the UK is thriving with a variety of different roles to accommodate the diversity of our population. This is evident from the top 10 most sought after jobs which offer a real breadth of experiences: Librarian to Rigger, Fashion Model to Funeral Services Director. That’s what’s really key here – us Brits are much more interested in the spice of life than salary.

Perhaps though, what’s most telling is an Emergency Ambulance Driver being the most sought-after job. It shows that the UK is looking to give back to the community and be part of something much bigger rather than take home a bigger pay packet, revealing a culture of love over money.”

Top 100 Most Sought-after Jobs