Blog

• ​Two-speed industry

• Beginnings of green shoots

• Rise of "permalance"

• Changes in employment law

The second three months of the year have continued the trends from Q1 especially the two-speed nature of the industry.

In general, the layoffs of 2024 have slowed and there are tentative green shoots. Although unfortunately in some cases agencies have lost business and tough decisions are still having to be made, there has definitely been increased optimism since 2023/24 marked by more roles appearing in the £80,000+ bracket.

The flipside is that the cutbacks have typically left agency teams as lean as they have ever been. We have therefore seen more people being asked to work longer hours in some agencies. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of people citing potential burnout as a reason to move on.

Lean teams also mean that there is no spare capacity to work on any new business wins. This often that a win means the need to hire a raft of new people and it's not unusual for us to be briefed on multiple roles at the same time.

​However, many agencies are still being more cautious about the roles they hire. Driven partly by the increase in project work and SLT's wariness, there has been a marked increase in the use of flexible talent and especially permalancers to fill gaps for the medium term.

Q2 also saw the introduction of various new employment laws as well as a more recent review of parental leave and pay.

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