The UK job market is split across at least 17 boards, and there is far less overlap than the public assumes. We scraped daily across the major sites for 30 days. Here is what the data says — and which boards each industry should prioritise.
The headline numbers
Across a 30-day window, only 41% of UK job postings appeared on two or more boards. That means 59% of roles are exclusive to a single source. Applying on Indeed alone misses well over half the market — and the gap is wider for niche sectors.
How the eight major boards rank for raw volume
- Indeed — broadest aggregator, strongest for warehouse, retail, hospitality, admin.
- Reed — strongest for office, finance, healthcare, and public-sector roles in the UK.
- LinkedIn — strongest for professional roles (tech, marketing, finance) and graduate hiring.
- Totaljobs — strong all-rounder, particularly for engineering and trades.
- CV-Library — high volume in industrial, trades, and driving roles.
- Adzuna — aggregator with strong long-tail coverage outside London.
- Glassdoor — overlaps heavily with Indeed but adds employer review context.
- Google Jobs — meta-aggregator; useful for catching everything but heavy duplication.
By industry — where the unique listings actually live
Healthcare and social care
NHS Jobs (nhs.gov.uk), Reed, Totaljobs, Indeed. NHS Jobs is non-negotiable for any public-sector healthcare role and carries a high proportion of roles that never appear on aggregators.
Trades and construction
CV-Library, Indeed, Totaljobs, plus trade-specific boards: BlueArrow for temp work, JobsInConstruction.com, and SiteJobs. Many trades roles are filled via agencies before they ever reach a public board.
Hospitality and catering
Caterer.com is the dominant niche board. Indeed, Hosco (for hotels), and venue direct careers pages also matter. LinkedIn is a relatively weak source here.
Retail
Indeed, Reed, and direct employer career pages (M&S, Tesco, John Lewis Partnership, Co-op). Retail-specific niche boards have largely been absorbed by Indeed.
Education
TES (tes.com) and Eteach are the dominant niche boards for teaching, support staff, and SEN roles. Reed has strong public-sector coverage. Local authority and academy trust career pages also need direct visits.
Logistics and driving
CV-Library, Indeed, JobIsJob, and the driving-specific boards (BigChoice, Drivers Direct). Agency-led market — register with two or three regional agencies in addition to applying directly.
Finance
Reed, LinkedIn, Totaljobs. eFinancialCareers for City of London and senior roles. Big-4 and bank careers pages for graduate and analyst entry.
Creative and design
LinkedIn, Dezeen Jobs (architecture/design), CreativePool, The Dots. Agency rosters often hire from referrals before posting publicly.
Tech
LinkedIn, Indeed, Wellfound (formerly AngelList), Otta. Direct careers pages of the YC-style startups dominate for product engineering roles.
Public sector and graduate
Civil Service Jobs (civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk), Local Government Jobs, NHS Jobs, Prospects (graduate), TARGETjobs.
The duplication problem
Aggregators copy from each other. A role posted on Reed appears 4–6 hours later on Indeed and Adzuna, then on Google Jobs. Searching all four in sequence wastes time and reads like you are spam-applying to the same role.
Atlas reads all eight major boards in parallel and de-duplicates the results, so each role appears once with the highest-quality source link.
A board-strategy by job-search horizon
- If you have 2 weeks: apply across the three highest-volume boards for your industry, plus one niche.
- If you have 1–3 months: add direct employer career pages for your 20 target companies and set up daily alerts.
- If you have 3+ months: also register with two specialist agencies in your region and check niche boards weekly.
What about LinkedIn Easy Apply?
Easy Apply has the highest application volume and the lowest reply rate. Recruiters know it lowers the friction and adjust their filters accordingly. Use Easy Apply for screening practice, but prioritise direct applications via the company website for any role you actually want.
The bottom line
One-board strategies leave 50%+ of the UK job market untouched. A four-board strategy plus your top niche source covers roughly 90% of openings. Either tab between them manually — or let Atlas pull them in parallel and score them against your CV.