Farming Jobs Are the Easiest to Land in the UK

If you are looking for a job in the UK, farming might be your best bet. New research shows that farming and agriculture have fewer people applying for each open position than any other field. On average, only seven people apply for every farming job. That makes it the least competitive sector in the country right now.

The research was done by an insurance company called Hiscox. They looked at job data from a website called Totaljobs to see which fields had the most and fewest applicants. The data covered job listings from the second half of 2025. Because several months have passed since then, the job market may have shifted again.

Other sectors with fewer applicants per job included education, sport and fitness, health, and skilled trades. Education and sport and fitness each had about eight applicants per vacancy. Health and skilled trades both had about nine. These numbers are still much lower than fields like advertising or animal care, where the number of applicants has more than doubled in the past year.

Farming did not just have fewer applicants — it also saw a 9 percent drop in the number of people applying compared to the year before. However, farming had far fewer total job openings than some other fields. There were just under 2,000 farming jobs available in the time studied. By comparison, social care had more than 100,000 open roles, though that field saw a huge 44 percent drop in applicants over the same period.

Some fields became much more popular with job seekers. Animal care and policing both saw more than double the number of applicants compared to the year before. Advertising also grew by 40 percent. Experts say this means job seekers in those fields will face much tougher competition when they apply.

Nick Thornhill works at Hiscox and helped lead the research. He said the numbers show how different the job market looks depending on which field you are in. He added that job seekers should stay proactive and well-prepared no matter which sector they are applying to. Being ready and organized can help anyone stand out, even in a crowded field.

Hiscox also asked a small group of people about what bothers them most when looking at job ads. The number one complaint was job postings that do not list the salary. Seven out of ten people said they were less likely to apply for a job if the pay was not shown. This suggests that companies may get more applicants simply by being upfront about what they pay.