Historical trend
Trend summary
NHS workforce vacancy rate was 6.5% in 2026-03, down from 6.8% in 2025-12.
Trend
- Over the available record (2018-06–2026-03), it has ranged from 5.9% in 2021-03 to 9.6% in 2022-06.
- The latest reading is below the record average of 7.8%.
Context
- NHS Digital (now NHSE) publishes workforce vacancy statistics quarterly; figures cover NHS trusts and related organisations.
- Vacancy rates are calculated as vacancies as a proportion of the total workforce establishment.
Generated from the published series — describes direction, magnitude and range only, with no editorial judgement or forecasts.
About this indicator
- Source
- NHS Digital
- Update frequency
- Quarterly
- Last updated
- 10 July 2026
- Next update
- 10 October 2026
- Licence
- OGL v3
- Direction
- ↓ Falling
Statistics
- Latest
- 6.5 %
- Period high
- 7.1 %
- Period low
- 6.5 %
- Period average
- 6.8 %