KPMG & REC Report on Jobs March 2025
The headline figures evidence:
- Starting salaries rise at the slowest pace in four years
- Permanent placements and temp billings decline at softer rates
As the commentary says, recruitment remains slow, with companies heading into April tax rises and uncertainty around The Employment Rights Bill.
Accountancy firm BDO just published an index on business confidence across manufacturing businesses and concluded that business confidence fell for the fifth consecutive month, tumbling to the lowest since January 2021, when we were in the middle of a global pandemic.
So, not great.
As a recruitment business, we're seeing some uplift on last year. Much of this is due to a concerted effort to get new business on and we've won new clients.
But it's bigger than that.
After the budget last year, it was almost impossible to get even a response to a call or an email from long-established relationships, with the usual hiring decision-makers doing nothing to move hiring processes forward.
Talking to fellow recruiters last year, there was great indecision and jobs were being pulled part-way through the process.
Our experience this year is more positive, despite the number of job vacancies being low.
Clarity's core clients are SME Businesses and, put simply, if they want to survive and thrive they need to be in a "business as usual" mindset.
With the lack of investment by SMEs in technology to improve productivity, the solution when someone leaves or new skills and experience are needed is to recruit.
What's the alternative?
Contact us now for a free, no-obligation chat. Contact Clare here.
Clare Wight is the founder and Managing Director of Clarity Appointments, an independent recruitment specialist. She served as a Regional Director for The Employment Agents Movement, supporting other independent recruiters.
She remains an active member of Recconnect (formerly Members Only), a recruitment leadership network promoting high ethical standards, collaboration, diversity, equity and inclusion.
She believes business owners are more fulfilled and higher-performing when they provide emotional and professional business support to other business owners, even those they deem to be competitors. She does this actively, whilst challenging and updating her skills and knowledge of the recruitment sector, enabling her to offer the best advice to firms looking to make their next hire.
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