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Jobs market views from HRs and recruiters

ended 06. February 2023

Ahead of this month’s official employment data, a number of journalists have asked Newspage to seek views from HR and recruitment experts about the trends they’re seeing at present in the jobs market. For the chance to get into the local, national and trade media, just respond to the questions below. 

  • Are companies still hiring as actively as they were six months ago, or are they battening down the hatches?
  • Are you seeing companies put their hiring plans on hold, or even lay off staff, given sky-high inflation and the deteriorating economy?
  • Are candidates and staff pushing for higher salaries due to the cost of living crisis?
  • Do you expect the jobs market overall to strengthen or weaken in 2023?
  • Which sectors could stay strong and which might struggle?

Any other trends you’re seeing that are of interest, jot them down. Your responses will be issued to the media on Monday morning.

9 responses from the Newspage community

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Sandra Wilson
Owner/Director at Cottrell Moore Limited
We're finding many larger companies are looking at cost savings and are planning for redundancies this year. SMEs are sitting tight to see what happens and are more reluctant to recruit than they were. Our contingency basis recruitment is down this year by over 50% so far, however, the large-scale recruitment projects for retail, hospitality and the care sector are still very much alive and kicking. HR support is also growing due to the expectations of possible redundancy planning and contractual consultations with employees.
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Paul Murphy
Director at Recruit North
Companies are still trying to hire but there is a severe shortage of candidates in most sectors. This can be attributed, in our opinion, direct to government immigration policy following the UK's exit from the EU, which has put immense pressure on the labour market. It is interesting to read that most unions cite staffing shortages as a major issue caused by wage levels when the hard fact is, regardless of wage levels, there is a massive shortfall of the workers needed to grow our economy and improve productivity. These shortages would still exist even if wages were doubled or trebled. Employees are asking for more money and private-sector employers, in our experience at least, are responding to this. We have clients who have brought forward annual pay rises to help their staff with the cost-of-living crisis.
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Cheney Hamilton
CEO at The Find Your Flex Group
Layoffs are rife, recruitment is being put on hold, the world is going to hell in a hand basket and it's all because management teams haven't spent enough time reinventing how we work. In my opinion, 2023 will be the year of businesses to evolve or die. The same goes for people seeking work in a world that is increasingly being automated. The good news is, some businesses, such as Unilever, AEG and Waters are already making hiring efficiencies and rethinking how they offer 'work'. The more businesses that follow suit, the better.
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James Calder
CEO at Distinct Recruitment
We’ve seen many businesses rethink their talent attraction and talent retention strategy post-pandemic. This is materialising in the form of salary increases and counter offers to condensed working hours and remote working policies. We believe the high amount of flexibility for candidates and increased salaries won’t be sustainable long-term for some employers. In 2023, we are still in a labour shortage market and companies are still competing with one another to employ the right individuals, which should counterbalance any difficulties the economy is likely to experience. In more well-established sectors such as finance and HR, we’re witnessing an increasing trend for interim work opportunities. Businesses are also recognising the need to invest in more tech-savvy experts across data, analytics and digital marketing.
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Kate Anderson
Finance and Compliance Administrator at Educated Recruitment
We are hiring as actively as we were six months ago, with the demand for staff exceptionally high. A shortage of workers in the education sector means we are not seeing hiring plans put on hold, or staff redundancies. Candidates are requesting higher salaries, which is a reflection of the cost of living crisis, and the staff shortage creating a competitive hiring environment. We expect the jobs market to strengthen, all the more so as China lifting its border restrictions may see overseas workers returning to the UK. Retail and hospitality are sectors that may struggle in the coming year. These could be considered luxuries in a cost-of-living crisis, and a lot of businesses in these areas are still recovering, rebuilding or reassessing after the pandemic and its knock-on effect. The utility sector will obviously continue to prosper.
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Kieran Boyle
Managing Director at CKB Recruitment Ltd
The UK insurance jobs market is still remarkably buoyant with vacancies far outweighing job seekers, as we are seeing a major slowdown in candidates who are actively looking. We think this is because so many people made moves in the industry in 2022 and are now sitting tight amid the growing economic uncertainties — and we cannot see this changing in the short term. We are also still seeing salaries going up as people ask for more to cope with the cost of living crisis and the firms who are paying these are winning the talent attraction battle. Overall, the insurance market is a very stable place to work and fortunate not to be in the mess a lot of other industries such as tech and media seem to be.
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Yvette Scott
Director at Meyer Scott Recruitment
The Government continually pats itself on the back for the low unemployment figures we have, but these are less a consequence of good policy than they are a lack of available candidates. The jobs market generally isn’t so much complex as it is frustrating. Firms don’t always appreciate that they need to be more flexible, requesting multiple CVs for sub-standard packages, which isn’t feasible. We need to relax migration laws, making it easier for workers to work in the UK across all sectors after which we can all take a breath and remodel. The result will be jobs are filled and better retention and services for all, both public sector and private. Lastly, employers need to get creative. Smaller businesses should offer their staff incentives that won’t prove fatal to their bottom line. For many employees, it’s not always about the money.
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Nicky Acuna Ocana
Managing Director at Ambition
We have seen job numbers reduce in professional services firms, but this is less an indication of ‘battening down the hatches’ than a return to more normal market conditions after the unrealistically high job flow we saw during 2022. The professional services sector will remain constant during 2023, as it doesn't experience the boom and bust cycles of many other sectors. However, due to the cost of living crisis and high inflation, there will continue to be pressure on the job market, which could result in candidates becoming more reluctant to move roles. People tend to sit tight in times of uncertainty.
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Lauren Thomas
Economist at Glassdoor
Companies have slowed hiring, with job vacancies continuing to fall. Data from Fishbowl by Glassdoor also suggests a rise in hiring freezes, with discussion of the topic increasing over 400 percent in the second half of 2022. Layoffs are another story: despite the reports of mass layoffs in tech, ONS data shows redundancies remain below their pre-pandemic norm. Glassdoor’s data shows concern about layoffs is concentrated amongst tech employees, with mentions in January 2023 up 262% year-on-year. However, those in other industries seem less worried, with mentions for all workers only increasing 51% year-on-year. Salaries are always a hot topic for workers, but there’s no doubt employees are concerned about their pay keeping up with today’s rising prices. Discussion of inflation surged 188% from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023.