Legal Job Market Report – July 2022
Here is our summary of the current state of the legal job market:
Locum Recruitment – Very Busy
It looks as if we are about to have a rerun of last summer when conveyancing locums who are actually able and willing to attend offices to provide cover become as rare as hens’ teeth! The market is incredibly busy and at the moment if we get one locum expressing an interest for a role we are very pleased with our performance (its usual to have at least 3-4 locums per assignment to choose from). We are still anticipating the conveyancing locum market slowing down but this has still not happened. One major issue is permanent recruitment and the huge disparity between employee and employer expectations. Local authorities have experienced similar problems in recruitment for years (local authority locums get paid a lot more than salaried local authority lawyers and hence it can be very hard to fill salaried local authority roles). We think private practice may go the same way too. All areas of locum work are busy – in house corporate commercial, family, private client. Notable exceptions as usual are personal injury and employment law.
Locum assignment updates here: https://www.interimlawyers.co.uk/category/locum-solicitor-updates/
Permanent Recruitment – Very Busy
This section of our newsletter is starting sound a bit like a stuck CD. Finding PAYE/salaried staff for any jobs at the moment is hard work. There is a shortage of just about everyone other than inexperienced paralegals and one of the hardest jobs for us at the moment is managing expectations – employers looking for employees and vice versa. Difficulties arise primarily around remote working and salary levels. Candidates want figures far higher than firms can often afford and some firms are still living in the early 2010s when it comes to salaries! Wages to attract candidates need to be higher than levels we are seeing a number of firms try to recruit at. Candidate registrations are still plummeting. Most recruitment for us is taking place from our database of existing candidates rather than job posting, which is having much less effect generally.
Vacancies can be viewed here: https://ten-percent.co.uk/vacancies/
Law Firms for Sale – Busy
Good time to be on the market if you are selling – plenty of choice for buyers and options for most sellers. We are getting a lot of enquiries from non-lawyers at present – a lot of our work can be managing expectations and explaining how complicated it can be to purchase a law firm if you are not a qualifed lawyer..
Full list at https://www.jonathanfagan.co.uk/law-accountancy-firms-for-sale/. For valuations or a confidential discussion about a potential sale or acquisition please ring 01824 780937 and speak to Jonathan Fagan or email jf@jonathanfagan.co.uk
Ten Percent Legal Recruitment Statistics
General Statistics for June 2022 (bracketed number is for June 2021)
New permanent vacancies added: 40 (45)
New locum vacancies added: 56 (34)
New candidates registering: 52 (42)
KPMG & REC Report on Jobs UK June 2022
Summary:
Notable slowdown in permanent placement growth
Vacancies expand at softest rate for over a year
Pay pressures ease only slightly as labour supply drops further
Commentary from Claire Warnes, Head of Education, Skills and Productivity at KPMG UK
“The apparent buoyancy of the jobs market overall continues to mask some increasingly concerning trends. Firstly, the fluctuations in demand for permanent and temporary workers in some sectors may be showing a sustained downward trend, as it becomes clear that current economic pressures are impacting employers’ confidence to grow. Secondly, the supply of candidates in all sectors continues to decline, with the rate of contraction accelerating to the quickest for three months in June. Added to that, competition for candidates pervades all sectors with employers offering financial incentives to retain talent, so increasing wage inflation. This latest data could be signalling that the UK jobs market may be more fragile
than it seems.”
