Last year saw the recruitment industry go through major change as the impact of the “great resignation” hit the UK job market. 

However, a new report by payments provider takepayments could hint at signs the job market is beginning to settle.

The first half of 2022 saw a -30 percent change when compared to the same 6-month period in 2021. 

However, this has begun to steady as the decline was only -2 percent when comparing January-June 2022 against July-December 2021. Recruiters have seen a shift. 

McKinsey recently claimed that we are seeing “a fundamental mismatch between companies’ demand for talent and the number of workers willing to supply it.” 

 

A realignment 

People are reassessing what they want from their careers and a gap has been created in the market as more people switch jobs and industries, retire early and even start their own businesses. 

Others are renegotiating rather than resigning, making their current job work better for their own individual needs. 

This combination of global uncertainty and improved life balance awareness is what has made the recruitment industry so turbulent in recent years and so it is good to see the first signs of stability in this latest report.

 

Will thriving industries see more recruitment demand?

The research also indicates the travel industry is leading the way when it comes to increased consumer spending, where unsurprisingly spending is up by 37 percent year-on-year. 

Combined with VisitBritain’s predictions that inbound tourism spending is expected to increase by 59 percent to £6.9bn in 2021, these figures will be another welcome sign of growth for UK tourism and for those working in recruitment in the sector.

Hospitality challenges however still continue, where consumer spending has fallen 10 percent year-on-year and shows no sign of growth over the past six months either. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amelia Brand
Amelia Brand

Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.