Professional recruitment firms in the UK reported that the number of candidates securing permanent roles in September 2018 increased by 9% year-on-year, according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

Much of the growth in permanent places can be attributed to a 49% year-on-year increase in permanent placements within the IT sector. Meanwhile, financial services reported an increase of 3% in permanent placements, however, engineering and marketing both recorded dips, with placements decreasing by 3% and 10%, respectively. 

APSCo’s survey data found that despite the growth in permanent placements, demand for both permanent talent and contingent workers dipped year-on-year, indicating that the recruitment market may experience a slowdown in the coming months. Vacancies for contractors slipped by 5% in September 2018, while demand for permanent professionals dipped 2% during the same period.

While overall vacancies declined for contracts, the financial services sector reported that vacancies for contractors jumped 20%. 

As for contractor placements in September, the number of contractors out on assignment dipped by 12%. Use of contingent workers fell across every one of APSCo’s core sectors, with the exception of financial services where contractor levels increased by 7% year-on-year.

Adam Pode, Staffing Industry Analysts’ Director of Research EMEA and APAC commented, “There are two significant challenges that the industry needs to deal with. Finding sufficient candidates both internally and externally: and, planning for an unclear Brexit. Faced with uncertainty, the data from both our survey as well as Innovantage seems to indicate that some employers are putting their plans on hold at the moment.”

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, also commented, “While permanent hiring remains strong for now, the horizon is packed with uncertainties which have the potential to flip hiring sentiment in an instant, which most certainly explains why vacancy numbers have stalled across the board. It seems that businesses are pressing ‘pause’ on hiring until there is greater clarity around not only Britain’s trading relationship with the EU post-Brexit and future migration policy, but also what the upcoming Budget will bring in terms of tax legislation.”

“With GDP growth already flatlining, and reports that the UK economy is heading for its worst year since the global financial crisis, it is no wonder that organisations may be hesitant to grow permanent headcount at present. Furthermore, suggestions that changes to off-payroll working to the public sector may be extended to the private sector as early as April 2019 could have the potential to hamper access to the flexible workforces that businesses need to bridge the gap at this uncertain time.”

“At present, demand for talent within financial services remains resilient. However, with the UK government now admitting that it expects thousands of financial services jobs to move to the European Union by the time of the UK's exit from the EU, there are question marks around how long this hiring activity will last.”

APSCo’s figures also found that median salaries across all professional sectors remained largely flat in September 2018, slipping by 0.6% across the board. However, there are notable fluctuations in terms of sector, with insurance and accountancy recording uplifts of 6.5% and 2.4% respectively.