On the 2nd of September 2026, the Guardian confirmed that Guardian Jobs is no longer taking new job adverts
Imogen Fox, the Guardian’s global chief advertising officer, said the UK recruitment landscape had "fundamentally shifted lately with vacancies at their lowest level in five years".
Jobs Go Public shared a market with Guardian Jobs from our launch in 1999, and although we coexisted as competitors, we admired what they were able to build. Their contribution to recruitment advertising in the public and not-for-profit space was immense, and the marketplace is a bit smaller without them.
There are people behind the September announcement whose jobs go with it, and that is not lost on us. The pressures they described are ones we recognise too, and we have been working hard to adapt to survive.
If, however, you previously advertised with Guardian Jobs, you may now be wondering what happens next and whether there is a worthy alternative. This page is here to help with that.
What happens to your live Guardian Jobs campaign
At the point of their announcement on 02/09/2026, the Guardian confirmed that every active advertising campaign and job listing would be fully delivered. If you have a live booking, it runs its course.
For credits or bookings that extend beyond the wind-down period, that is worth raising with your Guardian Jobs account contact directly. If you are not sure where you stand, we are happy to talk it through even if you decide to go elsewhere afterwards.
Does your policy or SLA name Guardian Jobs?
If your recruitment policy (1), officer employment procedure rules (2), or the service level agreement you offer schools (3), names Guardian Jobs as a place you advertise, that document now points at a service that is closing.
There is no legal requirement to advertise in any particular publication or on any particular job board. For chief officer appointments, the standing orders most councils work to require that arrangements are made for the post to be advertised in such a way as is likely to bring it to the attention of persons who are qualified to apply for it. The test is to suitably reach qualified people, but not to use any specific channel.
If you are updating the wording anyway, it is worth describing what you need rather than naming a single supplier, so the policy does not need rewriting the next time the market moves.
If you are looking for somewhere else to advertise, look no further
Jobs Go Public is the UK’s leading job board dedicated to public sector and not-for-profit recruitment, connecting purpose-driven candidates with employers since 1999. Everything we have built has been for organisations hiring people who want work that means something: councils and combined authorities, the NHS and wider health and social care, housing associations, schools and academy trusts, regulators and arm’s length bodies, and charities delivering public services.
Around 300,000 job seekers visit us every month, and they arrive actively looking for roles in public service. They are motivated, values-driven professionals looking for jobs that matter.
We only work with direct employers. Every advertiser is approved before they can post, which is how we keep our boards free of agency listings.
What it costs
Standard listings start at £480 self-service, or £600 with our team handling the posting. All prices exclude VAT, and discounts are available for charities and not-for-profit organisations.
Our full pricing is published, so you can budget before you speak to anyone. See our Job advertising packages page.
If you hire continuously or post in volume, our auto-posting service is usually a better fit than booking listings one at a time. See the Automated job feed subscription page for more information.
How quickly will your job ad be live?
Once an employer account is approved, you can publish a role yourself at any time through our online checkout and it goes live the same day.
Approval is a one-off step at the start. We check that every advertiser is a genuine employer of social purpose and not an agency, which takes a little time up front, but it's the reason our boards maintain the quality they do.
If you would rather we handled uploading your adverts, you can send the role to our team and we will have it live within one working day.
If you already have an applicant tracking system, we can usually take a feed from it so your vacancies post automatically.
Roles that need more than a listing
Some vacancies will not fill from an advert alone. For those, we run bespoke recruitment marketing campaigns designed around the specific role and the audience you need to reach.
If you need a compliant procurement route
We are on the ESPO 3A_24 framework, so you can appoint us through an existing compliant route rather than running a separate exercise. If you are replacing a supplier part way through the year, that usually makes things considerably simpler.
More information for your procurement team is available here: jobsgopublic.com/espo
If Guardian Jobs was part of your schools offer
Some councils may have had Guardian Jobs built into the recruitment service they pass on to schools. If that is you, the gap is not just your own advertising, it could be a product your schools have already paid for this year.
We run schools recruitment services for local authorities across the UK. Alongside advertising, that usually includes a dedicated schools careers site for the area, online application forms approved by your own team or by the Catholic Education Service, and tools that support schools through the safer recruitment process.
You can read more about how our schools traded services work at jobsgopublic.com/ats
