Hiring and recruitment insights: January 2025

As we expected, this month we have seen a rebound from the tighter December market with a 67% increase on regional role availability, a sign the employment market is heading for a better start to the year, despite a decline in roles year on year.

The initial disruption we all felt when the Autumn budget announced changes to National Insurance has levelled and while unfortunately this has led to redundancies for some businesses, we are still having good conversations with businesses in the region who are looking forward.

In January, 75% of our placements came from sourcing, whereby we find the candidates using our search tools and database of 25.5K candidates in the region, as opposed to candidates applying via job adverts. Our team work tirelessly to find and qualify candidates before sending to our clients, resulting in a 2:1 CV to interview ratio.

We have also seen applications rise in January as many job seekers return to their roles in the new year and start the search for something new. Comparing this year on year, we have held a consistent 14-17 application average for the past three years.

If we look ahead to the rest of this quarter and into the Spring, we remain confident of a stronger start to the year for both businesses and candidates looking to evolve their teams. With the later Easter holiday this year, this gives businesses a longer run up to get new employees settled into teams and make offers for new positions outside of the variable weeks when families may take holiday.

The start of the year has shown a promising increase in role availability and despite challenges in the market, we are still yielding results. If you are looking to expand your team this quarter, benchmark your salaries or want advice on benefits packages and more, do get in touch.

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