Recruitment remains healthy despite fall in postings, says REC

The volume of job postings in November shows that the recruitment market is healthy, according to a key labour market indicator.

This was the conclusion of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation based on latest results of the REC/Lightcast Labour Market Tracker.

The number of overall active job postings in November 2024 was 1,500,910. Although this was a decrease of 2.8% on the number of job postings in October 2024, it continued trend of moderation back to pre-pandemic levels, said the REC.

The organisation found that plenty of employers were keen to hire, with around 100,000 job postings in each of the hospitality, driving and logistics and retail sectors, as the country heads into the busy Christmas period.

REC chief executive Neil Carberry said: “Today’s numbers emphasise the scale and relative good health of the UK’s labour market.”

He added that many employers were concerned by the costs that the Budget and the Employment Rights Bill may bring, if poorly implemented, “but the economy is bigger than policy, and the relative health of household balance sheets and growing confidence among employers in their own business can shift the scales in the other direction.

“With political stability and lower inflation, businesses are well-positioned to head into the jobs market and trading next year with more confidence,” he said.

Lower and longer recruitment spikes in Christmas hiring in recent years were the result of employers improving their planning around workforce needs, said Carberry. Firms were, for example, extending temporary contracts rather than hitting the job market late in the year.

The REC said its latest recruitment industry status report found that, on any given day in 2023, 1,058,300 temporary or contract workers were on assignment in the UK.

Unsurprisingly, the increase in job postings was particularly evident for delivery drivers and couriers (101%).

Four of the top 10 counties that had the highest increase in job postings were in London: Wandsworth (13%); Haringey and Islington (12.6%); Hackney and Newham (4.6%); and Ealing (4.5%). Despite some pockets of growth, London as a region saw a 1.9% decline overall in job postings.

Overall, said Carberry, Christmas hiring was more modest this year than last. This reflected the challenging economy but also that more employers are getting better at forecasting staff needs ahead of Christmas without needing to rush to the job market.

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