Summary
October has been a quiet month again, which is fairly normal but the legal job market seems very subdued at the moment. We are active in both legal & accountancy recruitment and accountancy is currently booming so quite a contrast! Locum assignments have dropped (as is usual for this time of year) and permanent roles have also dropped. We have noticed a real drop in demand for conveyancers and a trickle of conveyancing candidates starting to appear on the market. Not sure yet which way this is heading.. The sale and purchase of law firms has increased, although this is a fairly new area for us.
Statistics
A summary of work we did in October is below (September figures in brackets).
October 2017 – Summary:
* Permanent vacancies up
* Locum assignments down
* London vacancies: 165 (160)
* South East: 398 (384)
* South West: 103 (99)
* Midlands: 57 (57)
* North West: 98 (94)
* North East: 52 (50)
* Wales: 22 (20)
Market outlook – locum demand has started to fall as we approach Christmas. Permanent recruitment is generally quiet also.
Statistics for October (September in brackets)
Current live vacancies: 897 (866)
New permanent vacancies added in October: 51 (51)
New locum vacancies added in October: 22 (33)
New candidates registering: 45 (98)
Average ‘Job Strength Factor’ for new vacancies: 3.6 (Good)
TP Legal Recruitment publishes the number of new vacancies, new candidates and indicate the increase or decrease from the previous month. We aim to assist the legal profession by showing the market from our perspective. Our clients tend to be high street law firms and smaller sized commercial practices.
The average job strength gives a good indication of the market because:
1. A poor Job Strength on vacancies indicates a struggling market. When trade is bad, employers seek options for increasing turnover which involve sourcing candidates with their own following and no salary.
2. A strong Job Strength on vacancies indicates a buoyant market, particularly if it is in connection with an increase in numbers of new vacancies.
Vacancies are each graded 1-5, with 5 being a very strong vacancy and 1 being a very weak vacancy.
