Q3 Talent Market Insight Report
All reports suggest that the talent landscape is beginning to thaw. This is because despite the number of permanent vacancies still dropping, in the last data released it had fallen by its smallest amount in 14 months.
Of course, due to the way the data is collected there is always a bit of a lag with the latest figures representing a drop as far back as May. This means, due to the cyclical nature of economics, there’s a good chance we’re already experiencing growth.
This has occurred during a backdrop of potential cuts to BoE interest rates which is likely to further influence businesses who may have previously been hesitant about hiring.
If you’re looking for more up-to-date consensus, though, I can confirm that at Signature we’ve actually been seeing steady job growth since the start of the calendar year. Now, part of this may be down to tweaks to internal resources, however, there’s no doubt that we’re seeing far more activity in the market than during the previous lows of 2023.
This is great news from our point of view as last year was particularly challenging for ourselves as well as many of our peers. And even better news is that the increase in vacancies is more than just speculative because there is clearly real hiring intent given our placements have risen in-line with the growth in job vacancies.
The summer-holiday period is usually a difficult time in recruitment due to the clear logistical challenges that a high density of holidays presents, however, what’s even more encouraging for us is that this year we barely saw any drop-off.
In fact, since the beginning of our financial year (July-June), as well as seeing strong job growth, we have seen our fill rate leap by 16% YOY. Considering this was achieved during the challenging months, this represents a significant shift in recruitment intent given that the vast majority of our missed placements usually result from client-side changes.
All of this represents encouraging times for us, as well as the wider economy, and I can only hope that this is the start of a period of stable and prolonged economic growth!