Recruiters Bulletin Jan 25

Recruitment in the UK

The key trends (in the UK) in December 2024 for recruitment tended to follow the usual annual pattern with vacancies down by nearly 17% on November, with 1,415,574  job advert postings in December reflecting the usual Christmas slowdown.

Rec's Monthly job posting tracker gives a good insight into the softening of the number of vacancy adverts. See here Rec also highlights some of the winners and losers in 2024 in this interesting article

According to the ONS their data states that vacancy numbers have been decreasing for two and a half years, with quarterly decreases in 10 of the 18 industry sectors from October to December 2024.

"According to the ONS total estimated vacancies were down by 118,000 (12.7%) in October to December 2024 from the level of a year ago; however, they remained 16,000 (2.0%) above their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic January to March 2020 levels." See more here

With this continued downward trajectory, recruiters will be looking toward the "new year new career" outlook, with many employees taking the chance to seek out fresh starts whilst employers will be looking to plan their hiring needs as the new financial year starts to come into view. So much will depend on how the calendar business year starts

Recruitment in the EU

In the second quarter of 2024, the job vacancy rate was 2.6% in the euro area, down from 2.9% in the first quarter of 2024 and down from 3.1% in the second quarter of 2023, according to figures published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The job vacancy rate in the EU was 2.4% in the second quarter of 2024, down from 2.6% in the first quarter of 2024 and down from 2.9% in the second quarter of 2023. See the main stats here

Among the Member States for which comparable data are available (see country notes), the highest job vacancy rates in the second quarter of 2024 were recorded in Belgium , the Netherlands (4.4% in both of them) and Austria (4.0%). By contrast, the lowest rates were observed in Romania (0.7%), Bulgaria (0.8%), Poland and Spain (0.9% in both of them). See more here

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Please note the information contained herein is an aggregate of news stories, and official statistic sources by commentators and organisations widely available - readers should seek independent verification, and this in no way represents the views or opinions of Standley Associates.

We will continue to check the news reports and will provide monthly summaries of the trends