Market Insights 2019 | Commerce and Industry, London

Part Qualified & Transactional

The beginning of this year was busier than usual, with consistent job flow and healthy activity - junior professionals are less worried about moving roles with Brexit on the horizon. New budgets are set at the beginning of the year, and companies were certainly hiring.

Newly Qualified

2019 got off to a subdued start, it’s often a challenging period where clients are busy with month/quarter/year end, and recruitment isn’t the priority. In addition to this, the political landscape made employers much more considered about their hiring strategy and we saw 17% less permanent roles being registered. In saying this, as the year has progressed, the volume of roles has increased and the market is buoyant. Our main challenge is that the market is in short supply of candidates. Reasons for this are that Q1 is a busy season for ACAs in practice so they do not have the time to interview, and also many permanent candidates are reluctant to move due to economic uncertainty.

Qualified Interim

The qualified and interim market enjoyed a successful 2018, with a record Q2 for the business. Albeit a slow start to 2019, the market gained some momentum after January. These peaks and troughs perhaps mirror the political uncertainty around how we are to leave the EU. Despite the turbulent environment, our data points towards a busy recruitment market where we are seeing increases in the number of permanent and interim roles being registered. Considering the UK’s high employment rate and the demand for high calibre individuals, there is an emphasis on engaging with passive candidates in new and innovative ways.

INSIGHT: Will IR35 affect your business?

Employees in the United Kingdom can be categorised as full-time, part-time, casual, freelance and contract workers, with the self-employed bracket now making up 15% of the entire working population. The number of self-employed workers jumped from 3.3 million in 2001 to 4.8 million in 2017, with a corresponding fall in the unemployment rate showing the overall boost in jobs growth from the rise in self-employment.

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