WARRINGTON is one of the best towns in the UK for job opportunities.

This is according to new research which has revealed which places have the best job opportunities for the people living and working within them.

The study, conducted by HR software provider Ciphr, compared employment data for 100 of the UK’s most populated towns and cities.

Warrington came in second place, behind Winchester and ahead of St Albans in third. Chelmsford, Sevenoaks, Preston, Cheltenham, Guildford, Aberdeen, and Reading also made the top 10.

Towns and cities were rated across multiple factors, such as average full-time earnings, annual pay growth, the latest employment and unemployment figures, employment rate growth, the number of job listings on Indeed, LinkedIn and Glassdoor (combined) per 10,000 local workers, and business density – or the number of businesses in the area.

Housing costs, as well as life satisfaction and happiness scores, were also considered to reflect the town or city’s affordability and its residents’ general level of wellbeing.

Warrington scored well across multiple criteria – it has a below-average unemployment rate of 2.8 per cent and an above-average employment rate of 80.2 per cent (the UK averages, for the year to December 2023, were 3.7 per cent and 75.7 per cent respectively).

For those job hunting right now, analysis of data from Indeed, LinkedIn and Glassdoor, earlier this month, found that there were 472 job postings in Warrington per 10,000 working-age residents (the UK average is 243 per 10,000).

In 2023, the number of employers in Warrington, with 10 staff or more, increased by 4.8 per cent (vs 2.2 per cent nationally), taking its tally to 75.1 businesses per 10,000 working-age adults (that’s above the UK average of 70.2 per 10,000).

The town is also relatively competitive in terms of housing affordability. Rental properties in Warrington averaged £695 a month in 2023 – just under a quarter (24 per cent) of full-time pay. While, according to Rightmove, properties sold for an average of £262,694 in the last year – around 7.6 times the average full-time worker's earnings of £34,400.

The full results are available to view and search at https://www.ciphr.com/infographics/best-uk-cities-for-job-opportunities-2024.