UK Job Vacancies Hit a Five-Year Low: Why More Small Business Owners Are Hiring a Virtual Assistant Instead

If you have been putting off recruitment because the numbers just do not add up, you are not alone. New figures show UK job vacancies have fallen to around 707,000, a five year low, while graduate job listings have collapsed by 85% since 2017. Add rising employer National Insurance contributions and growing caution around AI adoption into the mix, and it is easy to see why so many small business owners are hitting pause on hiring altogether.

For a lot of founders, this feels like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. You need more support to keep growing, but taking on a full time member of staff right now feels like a huge financial and administrative commitment. There is the recruitment process itself, the training, the holiday pay, the sick pay, the pension contributions, and the simple fact that if things do not work out, letting someone go is neither quick nor cheap.

This is exactly why so many small business owners, founders and busy executives are turning to virtual assistant support instead. Hiring a VA in the UK gives you the extra pair of hands you need (diary management, inbox control, research, admin, social media, blog writing, whatever it is that is eating into your week) without any of the overheads that come with a traditional employee. No National Insurance to pay, no recruitment agency fees, no desk space to find, no notice period if your needs change. You simply pay for the support you actually use, when you actually need it.

It also means you are not gambling on a slow, cautious hiring market. Rather than spending weeks (or months) trying to find the right candidate, interviewing, and hoping they work out, you can bring in an experienced VA who already knows how to hit the ground running. Most VAs, myself included, have years of experience across admin, PA and EA work, so there is no lengthy onboarding curve either.

If the current jobs market has made you nervous about recruitment, or you simply cannot justify a full time hire just yet, outsourcing to a VA could be the smarter, more flexible move. It lets you scale support up or down as your business needs change, without the risk.

This is exactly the kind of gap I help fill at Outlined VA. Whether you need someone to take diary and admin support off your plate, step in as PA or EA support, or simply free up a few hours a week so you can focus on the parts of your business only you can do, I am ICO registered, fully insured, and bring over a decade of experience to the table. If the hiring market has you rethinking your next move, let us have a chat about what flexible, outsourced support could look like for you.

Source: CPA, UK Business News Today, 3 September 2026 (cpa.co.uk)