Legal Recruitment – busy market
Each month we run a comparison between the last calendar month and the same time period in 2018 to see if there has been any noticeable difference in view of the extreme political uncertainty. In September 2019 we saw a 22% fall in the number of new permanent vacancies. We had the same number of locum roles registered as the previous year so no change.
So how was October 2019 compared to 2018?
We saw a 32% increase in the number of permanent vacancies registered with us and a 145% increase in the number of locum vacancies. We actually saw an extremely busy period of activity leading up to the half term weeks.
I suspect that the political uncertainty has been pushed to the back of employers’ minds a little bit in recent times as we have seen an increase in what we term “strategy calls” – ie where a firm calls for a general steer on future plans in recruitment. This is a good sign of a healthy market going forward.
Generally in November we watch the job market decline as we get into the run up to Christmas. Recruitment tends to be busy from March to September and then much quieter towards Christmas. Locum work always falls off, particularly for short term conveyancing cover, and hourly rates drop as more locums compete for less jobs. Maternity cover roles become more relevant and always seem to peak about this time.
Statistics
General Statistics for October 2019 (comparison is with October 2018)
Current live vacancies: 1079
New permanent vacancies added: 37 (28)
New locum vacancies added: 27 (11)
New candidates registering: 72 (65)
October 2019 – Live Jobs (comparison with September 2019 in brackets):
London vacancies: 190 (194)
South East: 459 (453)
South West: 99 (96)
Midlands: 81 (80)
North West: 113 (112)
North East: 78 (76)
Wales: 49 (41)
We have 37 law firms for sale at the moment with a couple more coming to market this month – for details of current law firms for sale please click here to view our list.
