Legal Job Market Report June 12th
May and early June have been up and down like a yo yo, although I have been writing this since March 2008 for every newsletter we have sent out! We see pockets of very frenetic activity, followed up with a long gap without very much occurring.
The main points from the June 12th KPMG report on the jobs market reveals:
- Growth of permanent placements eases
- The Midlands outperforms the rest of the UK
- Engineering/Construction sector sees growth in permanent and temporary vacancies
- Weak pay growth signalled
- Total number of hours worked per week in the UK increased by 8.4 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the previous three months.
- Number of people securing permanent jobs has increased for the fifth consecutive month and official figures show a drop in unemployment.
In June 2012 we had 121 new candidates register with us. We have seen another round of redundancies, mainly in the larger firms, as management appear to be trying to streamline operations. Most of the redundancies appear to be for senior and middle level employed solicitors, which was the pattern emerging back in 2008 when the recession started to bite.
We have seen a large increase this month in the use of contractors (aka locums) by law firms, which appears to be the new trend. There is an article below outlining the benefits of using contractors as opposed to permanent staff to cover any busy periods of work.
Register Vacancies with Ten-Percent or Interim Lawyers – click here. Ten-Percent offers law firms unlimited permanent and locum recruitment for 5 years at £60 per month. Interim Lawyers offer locums and contractors on hourly rates.
