sausagedog
How competitive is this job?
Paste a Reed advert. See how many people have actually applied, and whether that is a lot or barely anything for that role.
We read the advert's real application count from Reed, then compare it against adverts of the same role and age that we have tracked from the moment they went live.
Why an application count on its own tells you nothing
Twenty applications sounds like a lot. For a receptionist advert that has been live a week it is roughly normal. For a staff nurse advert it would be extraordinary: across every staff nurse advert we watched from launch, not one reached ten applications. The number only means something next to the role it belongs to, which is what this page adds.
The wider finding, from tracking 1,691 adverts hour by hour, is that two thirds never reach ten applications at all, and where a queue does build the tenth application takes a median of 28 hours. Applying in the first hour is mostly a myth.
How this works
We run a standing panel against the Reed API that records every live advert in a set of UK occupations, once a day, and keeps the ones that appeared while we were watching. Because we catch those from launch, we know an advert's true age, so we can compare like with like rather than putting a fresh advert next to a three-month-old one.
When you paste an advert we read its current application count from Reed and place it against adverts of the same role in the same age band. If we do not track the role, we say so rather than guessing.
Frequently asked questions
How do you know how many people applied for a job?▾
Reed publishes an application count on each advert. We read that number for the advert you paste. It is the real count, not an estimate. What we add is the comparison: we have tracked adverts in a set of UK occupations once a day from the moment they went live, so we can tell you whether that number is high or low for that role at that age.
Is a job with lots of applicants worth applying for?▾
Often yes. In our data most adverts never reach ten applications at all, so a busy advert is the exception rather than the rule. A high count tells you the queue is real and that a generic application is unlikely to stand out. It does not tell you the employer has already chosen someone.
Why does it say you do not track my job?▾
We only report on roles we have watched from the moment adverts went live, because that is the only way to know an advert’s true age and therefore whether its application count is high or low. Rather than estimate for a role we have not measured, we say so. The list of covered roles is shown on the page and grows as the panel does.
How often is the data updated?▾
The panel takes a fresh snapshot roughly once a day and the comparison figures are rebuilt from it. The application count for the advert you paste is read live from Reed at the moment you check it.