January 2012 was a very busy month for Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment, but generally this was a strange time in recruitment. Firstly, although vacancies appear to be growing in number and even conveyancing posts have surfaced, candidates appear not to be responding in the same numbers as they were this time last year. We are getting plenty of new candidates, but a good proportion are outside the premium range of the 1-5 year PQE mark.
We are preferred suppliers to over 45 law firms, and they continued to post vacancies with us in the post-Christmas period. Recent vacancies include a receptionist post in Skegness, housing supervisor role in South London (over 5 applications from SQM LSC supervisors), Family Supervisor in East London, Duty Solicitor in SE London, Probate clerk and accounts manager in West Wales, private crime post in central London, family solicitors in Ashford and Dartford, mental health caseworkers in East London, child panel solicitor in Berkshire, locum conveyancing post in Reading, personal injury dept head in Hampshire, conveyancing in Bognor, family solicitor in Swindon.
The number of vacancies is picking up.
Reed, one of the national job boards we use for recruitment (included as part of the £60 service), have issued their employment market update today. Overall demand for staff increased in January, with a rise across the UK compared to December 2011. This is probably a fairly small increase, bearing in mind December tends to be the quietest month of the year for recruitment (apart from when a Royal Wedding occurs of course!). Month-on-month increases were seen in 20 of the 34 sectors analysed, with Charity & Voluntary, Estate Agency and Marketing performing best. Quite interestingly employer demand for Banking roles continues to decline, however, with a 76% drop in vacancies over 12 months.
Locum posts remain fairly active, although these have dropped off in recent months. The market is yet to get busy this year, despite my prediction in December that it would pick up.
The vast majority of the posts coming through to our recruitment agency services are now being posted by clients who have signed up to the £60 per month scheme for us to be their preferred suppliers.
In January the Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment £720 a Year Service had 148 new candidate registrations (solicitors, fee earners and legal support staff candidates).
Jonathan Fagan, MD Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. T: 0207 127 4343 or email: jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk
