Every month, we share the latest labour market trends based on statistics from the ‘UK Report on Jobs’ by KPMG and Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) as well as our own first-hand experience from within our regions.
The report is compiled by S&G Global, based on a monthly questionnaire sent to a panel of approximately 400 UK recruitment and employment agencies – including ourselves.
Note: these statistics relate to the period of time before the budget announcement.
Key Points
Reduced demand for permanent hires
However, permanent salaries rise as firms compete for top talent
Worker availability increases at second-fastest rate since 2020
UK has the most job adverts mentioning AI, research shows
REDUCED DEMAND FOR PERMANENT HIRES
Demand for permanent hires remains subdued, but this is nothing new – it has remained relatively consistent across the year.
Compared to October, where growth was seen, temporary placements declined in November too.
PERMANENT SALARY INFLATION
Despite reduced demand for permanent and temporary hires, employers remain willing to pay inflated salaries for skilled candidates. It was reported that permanent salaries rose at their highest rate for 5 months.
CANDIDATE AVAILABILITY
Continuing a now 2-year long trend, candidate availability rose once again, and at the second-fastest rate since 2020 – with only August 2025 showing a sharper rise.Recruiters reported redundancies and the reduced demand for staff being to blame.
UK JOB ADVERTS TOP AI LIST
In some interesting research by Indeed, the UK tops the list of having the most job adverts with AI mentioned; at the end of October 5.6% of postings referenced AI. This is higher when compared to peer economies France, Germany, US, Canada and Australia.
SUMMARY
The picture of the labour market throughout 2025 has been subdued but steady. Rising costs and a loosening of the market has caused subtle shifts in employers’ approach to hiring. With so much riding on the budget, there was an underlying feeling of hesitancy.
Whilst the budget didn’t deliver any huge blows to employers, there wasn’t much incentive to get hiring either. In the same timeframe, we’ve had the Employment Rights Bill becoming law, with good news for employers on the removal of unfair dismissal as a day one right. Teams need to time to understand these changes and plan ahead for the raft of changes as a result.
All of this, straight into the tricky Christmas period, we expect any major hiring decisions will now be made in January.