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

APSCo’s research further showed that while permanent placements within IT and engineering increased by 7% and 3% respectively over the year, the number of marketing professionals securing permanent roles during this time slipped by 8%.

Meanwhile, vacancies for permanent staff dipped by 2% in March.

APSCo’s survey data also found that the number of finance professionals securing permanent roles increased by 22%, while the number of contract professionals out on assignment in the sector rose 2% over the same period. Vacancies for permanent finance professionals grew by 11% while demand for contractors within financial services rose 18%.

Despite the demand for contractors in financial services, overall contract vacancies dipped by 10%, year-on-year. The overall number of contractors out on assignment, meanwhile, dipped by 17% during the same period. APSCo stated that this can largely be attributed to a 37% year-on-year fall in IT professionals working on a contract basis during this time.

APSCo’s figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors dipped by 2.3% year-on-year. IT and Engineering recorded uplifts of 3.6% and 2.9% respectively.

John Nurthen, Staffing Industry Analysts’ Executive Director of Global Research commented, “Those professional staffing firms with a bias towards permanent placement will be relishing the current market while those supplying temporaries and contractors have been increasingly squeezed since summer 2017. Finance is the only sector where placements increased across both categories of workers, giving some hope to the government’s claim last week that the UK’s financial services industry will emerge largely unscathed from Brexit and suffer far fewer job losses than first feared.”

“However, with continuing uncertainty about passporting arrangements - which allow financial firms in one EU state to service clients in another without setting up local subsidiaries - the safety of finance jobs through the Brexit transition remains unclear,” Nurthen said.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, commented, “The current strength of the financial services sector is particularly noteworthy, with firms overcoming post-referendum jitters and scrambling to recruit both permanent and contingent talent.”