Permanent hiring is moving again. Here’s what it means for you.

The KPMG and REC Report on Jobs landed this week and, for the first time since September 2022, permanent placements across the UK went up. Temp billings grew for the fifth month in a row. Starting salaries rose at their fastest rate since January.

That is the good news. The rest of the report is more careful. Vacancies fell again, for the thirty-fourth month running. More people are looking for work than at any point in the last three months. Permanent hiring rose in London while hospitality and retail saw the steepest drops in demand.

So the market is moving, but nobody is sprinting.

That matches what we are seeing. Studios want to grow, and the ones hiring permanently right now have a better choice of people than they have had in years. More strong candidates are available, London is one of the places where permanent hiring is rising, and starting salaries are climbing. If you have a permanent role you have been sitting on, this is a good window. Waiting for the Budget to settle means competing for the same people in the new year, with less choice and a higher price.

If a permanent hire is not on the cards yet, there is no need to stand still. Freelance-to-permanent lets you bring someone in on a live project, so both sides find out how it works in practice, and convert when the pipeline allows. It still ends in a permanent hire, just with the guesswork taken out. A fixed-term contract covers a delivery peak. A project-specific hire gets a defined piece of work over the line with someone who has done it before.

One warning. More candidates on the market does not mean the good ones are cheaper. The report is clear that pay for skilled and niche people went up again in August. A project manager who can hold a build together, a client services lead who can manage a demanding account, an ops person who makes a studio actually run: these people are still in short supply, and they know it. If you find one, move.

KPMG Report can be found here!!

The Summer Pause That Isn't Really a Pause

The first half of this year has been an interesting one.

Despite everything being written about market uncertainty, it's been our strongest six months on record. But more than the numbers, the conversations have felt different. Studios are thinking further ahead. Larger projects are beginning to crystallise. There's a quiet confidence building about what's coming, and it feels earned rather than assumed.

Not every business is flat out. Some are impossibly busy. Others are clearly positioned for major projects that haven't quite landed yet, holding their breath a little. But across most of the market, there's a sense of momentum that wasn't quite there this time last year.

And now, with August here, we've reached one of those natural moments to stop and take stock.

For a lot of leaders, this month offers something that's become genuinely rare: a bit of breathing space. Time to reflect on what's worked, re-energise, and prepare for what is almost always a demanding run from September through to Christmas. It goes quickly. It always does.

It's also a moment that creative businesses consistently underestimate from a talent perspective.

The received wisdom is that recruitment slows down in August. And in some ways, that's true. Decisions take a little longer. Holidays take priority. Diaries become harder to align.

But that's precisely what creates the opportunity.

Exceptional people don't pause because the calendar does. Some are using the quieter weeks to genuinely reflect on where they are and where they want to go. Others are making decisions they've been sitting on for months. They're exploring what's out there, without the noise and competition that arrives the moment September starts.

And because fewer hiring processes are running at full pace, the businesses that are ready to move can often engage outstanding people before anyone else is even looking.

Because when September comes, everyone wakes up at once. Budgets are released, plans are dusted off, diaries fill overnight, and the competition for the best people intensifies almost immediately. Every year, without fail.

The businesses that consistently make the strongest hires aren't always the ones with the deepest pockets. They're the ones that saw the opportunity before the rest of the market did.

So if you have a little space over the next few weeks, use it well.

Think about where the business is heading. Consider what you'll need over the next twelve months, not just in terms of headcount, but capability, leadership, structure. And if hiring is likely to be part of that, don't assume September is the right place to start.

Sometimes the best conversations happen before there's a vacancy to fill.

If you're using August to think about what comes next, we'd genuinely love to be part of that. Whether that's a key hire, a new capability, a review of your team structure, or simply a sense-check on what you're seeing in the market, we're always happy to share what we're hearing.

The summer pause is real. The opportunity inside it is too.