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Recruitment Industry

The recruitment industry plays a crucial role in matching potential employees with job vacancies, employing various methods across different organizations and sectors. In recent years, the market has faced a shortage of candidates and an abundance of job openings, increasing the value of recruiters for businesses seeking talented employees.

£39B

Temporary-Employment Placement Agencies Market Size is £39bn (Ibis World, 2022).

43%

43% of agencies say that IR35 compliance has caused them difficulties when recruiting for contract positions (Business Mondays, 2023).

60%

Over 60% of recruitment agencies are planning to increase their number of recruiters (Fire Fish, 2023).

256,855

Data from the REC highlights have reported a boom in the number of new job adverts (256,855) in the week of 6-12 Feb 2023, according to the REC (Signature Recruitment, 2023).

The recruitment industry consists of various agencies and in-house professionals who work to match potential employees with available job vacancies. The methods and processes vary across individual organisations, industry sectors and job roles (WikiJob, 2022).

The market has consistently been short of candidates and heavy with jobs, meaning the recruiter’s value increased for businesses desperate to find talented candidates for their positions (UK Recruiter, 2022). At the start of 2023, lingering uncertainty over the economic outlook and hesitancy to commit to new permanent hires weighed on recruitment activity. On the other hand, firms often lean on temporary workers to fill vacancies. (Signature Recruitment, 2023). According to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, UK employers anticipate positive hiring expectations in the short term (Staffing Industry Analysis, 2023).

Industry Challenges

Talent shortages
IR35 compliance
Cost of living crisis

(Ibis World, 2022; UK Recruiter, 2022; Business Mondays, 2023)

In this regard, recruiters must offer far more than a transactional service. The agencies should transition their offering into total talent solutions whereby the recruiter acts as a strategic advisor and takes a broader view of a client’s talent needs. Clients will begin to choose recruiters who think about the work that needs to be done rather than the body that needs hiring. There is now an opportunity to work out how to solve an entire talent problem rather than how to fill individual roles (UK Recruiter, 2022).

Industry Opportunities

Alternative candidate attraction strategies
The utilisation of the industry tech stack
Recruiter Retention

(UK Recruiter, 2022; Fire Fish, 2023)