Our sponsor job list fell from 772 to 653 in a day. Nobody was told

You saved some sponsored jobs a few weeks ago and you are still working through them, a couple of applications an evening. Several of those adverts are already closed, and nothing told you.

Last night, 3 October 2026, our list held 772 live jobs. This evening, Sunday 4 October, it holds 653. In one day 119 adverts came off it. Every one of the 653 is at a company that was on the Home Office register this morning.

Of those 653 we first saw 308 in the last seven days, and 23 in the last twenty four hours. So almost half of this evening's list did not exist for us a week ago. A sponsored job list is not a library you can come back to. It is closer to a notice board somebody clears every night.

The ones that leave do not say goodbye

New jobs arriving is the easy half to see. The other half is that adverts go, and nothing marks the moment they went.

On 30 September we counted 812 live jobs and we published that number. At 18:20 on 3 October it was 786. By late that night, 772. This evening, 653. The total keeps falling while new jobs keep arriving, which means the ones coming off outnumber the ones going on.

An advert goes for four ordinary reasons, and none of them is a scandal.

• The job was filled, often by somebody who applied in the first few days.
• The advert expired on the board it was posted to, and weekends clear a lot of them at once.
• The link stopped working, which happens far more than anybody expects.
• The employer came off the Home Office register, and the advert may still be sitting on their own website looking perfectly alive.

Why this quietly wrecks the usual plan

The common plan is to gather a big list of sponsored jobs, then work through it over a month, a few applications at a time, each one carefully written.

On a list that moves this fast the plan fails without telling you. By the third week you are applying to adverts that closed in the first. You get no reply, and no reply reads exactly like a rejection, so you decide the market is shut when it was open the whole time.

It is also why counting applications proves nothing. Forty applications sent to dead adverts is zero applications. Six sent the week the advert appeared is six.

How to read a list that keeps moving

Read the newest first. Our jobs page has two buttons for exactly this, Today and This week. This evening Today holds 23 jobs and This week holds 308. That is the warm part of the list, and it is the part worth your evening.

Apply the same week you find it. A decent application in the first few days beats a perfect one three weeks later on an advert nobody is reading any more.

And check the employer on the day you apply, not on the day you found the job. A licence can lapse in between, and our licence check is free, with no account and no sign in.

Two things a fast list still cannot tell you

A sponsor licence is permission to sponsor somebody. It is never a promise to sponsor you, for this job, this year. Anybody who tells you otherwise wants something from you.

Pay is the other one, and the visa turns on it. GOV.UK puts the usual Skilled Worker minimum at £41,700 a year or the going rate for that kind of work, whichever is higher. Health and care jobs are measured against £25,000, or the going rate if that is higher.

Most adverts print no figure at all. Of this evening's 653, only 192 state pay, and 461 are silent about it. So ask in your first message. What is the annual salary for this role, and does the company sponsor a Skilled Worker visa for it. A serious employer answers both halves, and if nobody answers you have learned something for the price of one message.

Where this evening's numbers came from

Our last scan read 50,164 adverts to arrive at these 653. An advert from a company that is not on the register is dropped. An advert that says it cannot sponsor is dropped, and so is every other advert from an employer that has refused sponsorship somewhere else.

The register edition behind this evening's list is the one the Home Office published on 2 October 2026, which named 127,334 licensed sponsors. We download it every morning, so a company that comes off the list comes off our site the same day.

Looking is free. No account, no password, nothing to cancel. The employer's name and the apply link on a checked advert cost £20, once, forever. You apply direct to the employer on their own website, and we never touch your application.

And the rule that never changes. Nobody may charge you for a certificate of sponsorship. Selling one is a criminal offence in the UK.

We are a job alert service, not immigration advisers, and this is not legal advice. For your own case speak to a regulated adviser or a support organisation.