Professional recruitment firms in the UK reported that the number of candidates securing permanent roles in January 2018 increased by 10% year-on-year, according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

APSCo’s data, which focuses on professional recruitment, also showed that demand for contractors decreased across many of the trade association’s core sector groups. Vacancies within engineering, for example, slipped by 5%, while demand within IT and marketing fell by 8% and 21%, respectively. Finance was the only sector where vacancies for non-permanent roles increased, with demand for contractors up by 2%.   

The overall number of contractors out on assignment, meanwhile, dipped by 16% during the same period. APSCo stated that this could largely be attributed to a 38% year-on-year fall in IT professionals working on a contract basis during this time.

Meanwhile, vacancies for permanent staff, increased by 0.3% in January when compared to last year. Vacancies for finance professionals to work on a permanent basis jumped by 16% year-on-year.

APSCo’s figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors dipped by 1.2% year-on-year. Although there are fluctuation across sectors, with financial services and engineering, for example, recording uplifts of 1.8% and 2.4%, respectively.

“There continues to be a clear split in demand for skilled professionals as staffing firms are finding it easy to place candidates into permanent roles but much more difficult to fill temporary and contract positions,” John Nurthen, Staffing Industry Analysts’ Executive Director of Global Research, said. “This schism in demand is most obvious in the social work and engineering sectors. With the latest unemployment rate down in February to 4.4% from 4.8% a year earlier, this tight labour market is likely to continue for the foreseeable future."

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, also commented, “The market for permanent jobs started the year strongly, with financial services clearly leading the pack in terms of both demand and placements. The fact that the Bank of America has extended its London lease for another ten years in commitment to the UK post-Brexit is indicative of the confidence that is driving this long-term approach to hiring in the sector. Looking forward, with recent research suggesting that financial services is one of the sectors that will be impacted least by Brexit, we expect this positivity to continue.”