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Recruiter Insights for October 2025

Here are our recruiter insights for October, with the latest facts and figures from the labour market. This update is based on the jobs posted on CharityJob during July to September 2025.

Record levels of candidate demand for jobs

We’re continuing to see year-on-year growth from candidates compared to 2024, with September seeing record levels of clicks on the ‘Apply’ button (CoA) per job posted again, matching February of this year.

The overall average number of clicks on the ‘Apply’ button was up by 20% year-on-year and up by 1% on the previous quarter.
46 average clicks on apply per job 20% increase year-on-year 1% increase quarter-on-quarter CharityJob continues to see strong growth in 2025, with September reaching record CoA per job posted.
Graph showing average clicks on the 'Apply' button for 2023, 2024 and 2025. The 2025 line in consistently higher than the previous years.

Candidate numbers remain high

Continuing the trend this year, we’ve seen record numbers of new accounts being created this quarter, with a 57% increase on last year.

The number of active candidates on our site increased by 34% year-on-year. This may be due to pressures from this recruiter-led market making third sector roles more desirable to a wider pool of candidates.
89,070 active candidates (Jul - Sep 2025) 34% increase year-on -year 16% quarter-on-quarter CharityJob is still seeing high active 'logged-in' candidates compared to the previous year. 48,418 candidate registrations (Jul - Sep 2025) 57% increase year-on-year 26% increase quarter-on-quarter CharityJob saw record candidate registrations this quarter with huge year-on-year growth
Graph showing numbers of candidate registrations by month in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The 2025 line shows a much higher number across all months, with a particular peak in July - August.

Signs of growth in number of jobs posted

CharityJob saw signs of growth in the number of jobs posted, with a 3% increase vs. the previous quarter. September aligned with the same period last year.

We can also see from the graph that the number of jobs posted throughout this year is continuing to be flat and steady.
12,961 jobs posted (Jul - Sep 2025) 5% decrease year-on-year 3% increase quarter-on-quarter The number of jobs posted in Q3 2025 is slightly up on the previous quarter, staying fairly steady throughout the year.
Graph showing the number of jobs posted over time by month in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The 2025 line is below the other two years but meets the 2024 line in both March and September.

Support Workers job category shows the most growth

The category with the biggest gap between the number of roles available and the number of clicks on the ‘Apply’ button, was, once again, fundraising. Demand for fundraising roles was 46% lower than the overall demand for jobs, with 28 clicks on ‘Apply’ for fundraising jobs, compared to 52 for all jobs.

The category with the most roles available this quarter was ‘Business Services’, with more than 2,900 jobs posted, up 15% on the previous quarter.

The category to grow the most over the quarter was Support Workers, increasing by 16% compared to the previous quarter.

Demand (measured in clicks on the ‘Apply’ button) for marketing, PR and digital roles, and policy, advocacy, governance and campaigns roles has now reached more than 100 for three consecutive quarters.

Finance and policy, advocacy, governance and campaigns roles had the highest growth in demand (measured in clicks on the ‘Apply’ button) from the previous quarters, with both categories increasing by 10%.
Table showing 1. category of job, 2. number of jobs posted and 3. average clicks on apply for October 2025. 1. Business Services. 2. 2,957. 3. 40. 1. Fundraising. 2. 2,447. 3. 28. 1. Support workers. 2. 1,998. 3. 46. 1. Marketing, PR & Digital. 2. 1,616. 3. 101. 1. Admin. 2. 935. 3. 75. 1. Finance. 2. 637. 3. 42. 1. Policy, advocacy, governance & campaigns. 2. 617. 3. 121. 1. Operations. 2. 477. 3. 53. 1. HR. 2. 284. 3. 43.

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Tags: charity recruitment, charity sector, job market, recruitment trends

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About the author

James Yardley

James Yardley is Head of Data and Analytics at CharityJob.