Care Sector Vacancies Fall Back Toward Pre-Pandemic Levels, Skills for Care's Latest Report Finds

Skills for Care, the strategic workforce body for adult social care in England, published its flagship annual report on the state of the sector on 15 October 2025, covering data for 2024/25. The headline finding: after several difficult years, vacancy rates in adult social care have fallen back close to where they were before the pandemic.

There were 1.71 million posts in adult social care in England in 2024/25, up 2.2 per cent on the year before. Of these, roughly 111,000 were vacant, around 16,000 fewer vacancies than the previous year, a drop of about 12.4 per cent, taking the vacancy rate down to around 7 per cent. Filled posts rose to about 1.6 million.

The sector's economic footprint also grew, with adult social care contributing an estimated £77.8 billion to the English economy in 2024/25, up 12.2 per cent on the year before.

But the report also flags a sharp change in where the workforce is coming from. The number of people arriving from overseas to take up direct care roles fell from around 105,000 in 2023/24 to just 50,000 in 2024/25, a fall of more than half, reflecting recent tightening of visa rules for care workers. That leaves the sector more reliant than before on recruiting and retaining staff already living in the UK.

Retention remains a particular challenge among younger staff: turnover among under-25s in the sector runs at 38 per cent, roughly double the 20 per cent turnover rate among staff aged 50 to 59. Pay progression is also flat for many care workers: the report found that staff with five or more years of experience earn only around 7p an hour more than brand-new starters, and that most establishments still don't offer enhanced sick pay or employer pension contributions above the statutory minimum.

Looking ahead, Skills for Care projects that England's population aged 65 and over will grow by 27 per cent by 2040. If the social care workforce needs to grow in line with that demand, the report estimates around 470,000 additional posts will be needed over the next fifteen years.

What this means for jobseekers

• Vacancy rates easing doesn't mean the sector has enough staff; it partly reflects a smaller pool of overseas applicants rather than a surge of domestic recruitment.
• If you're new to care work, don't expect pay to rise much just by staying in the role. The report suggests experience alone brings only a small pay premium, so progression usually means gaining qualifications or moving into senior or specialist posts.
• The long-term demand picture is strong. With hundreds of thousands of extra posts projected to be needed by 2040, care work looks set to remain in demand for years to come.
• Check what benefits an employer offers beyond basic pay. Enhanced sick pay and pension contributions are far from universal in the sector, so they are a meaningful differentiator between employers.

This is a summary for general information. Read the original source for full detail before relying on it.