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.
