Q3 Market Update

 3rd Oct 2024

Another 3 months have now passed since we last updated you on the recruitment market through the eyes of team W&A.

A summer punctuated by the highs, lows and inevitable distractions of the Paris Olympics, the Euros and a General Election was accompanied by the usual stop-start patterns of recruitment over the summer months. Admittedly, this makes it slightly trickier to identify some of the usual recruitment trends.

Nevertheless, there are a few observations to share.

Some initial signs of a more buoyant market after the July election, a fall in inflation and some predictions interest rates may fall appeared to boost business confidence levels and in turn, led to a really busy month for the W&A team. Some rarer optimism amongst those businesses recruiting and some hope for all those job searching.

This started to dip again in August, however, and with the holiday season in full flow being one big potential reason, by then interest rates had not started to come down as predicted and in doing so suggested some more caution on the economic outlook.

September has been unspectacular in recruitment activity levels thus far, but thankfully we have still had some really interesting opportunities to partner on so it is not all bad news. In the last few months, the W&A team have recruited for finance opportunities in Manufacturing, Sport, Education, Tech (Saas) and Advertising to name just a few.  

Meanwhile, the Financial Services industry in Scotland continues to see some wholesale change with Sainsbury's Bank essentially acquired by Natwest, and Barclay's acquisition of part of Tesco Bank in full swing, whilst Nationwide still looks highly likely to conclude a deal to takeover Virgin Money imminently. The landscape here in Banking is beginning to look quite different and as a large employer in the accountancy and finance sector, these changes do have an overall impact.

In general, recruitment is still somewhat sporadic in pattern. We are lucky that we continue to partner with various businesses across different sectors as they look to grow or change their finance teams to adapt to current demands and despite market conditions being a little ‘flatter’, there remain some good news stories! There are some businesses flourishing despite the general economy. The corporate finance market appears to be having some fairly good deal flows and with change in economic conditions, interest rates or potential changes to capital gains tax, sometimes comes opportunity.

The interim market still has not returned to pre-Covid/IR35 change levels of activity in terms of the ‘day rate’ engagement model but demand has not ceased and for those interested in opportunities within this market many companies have switched to Fixed Term Contractor models and continue to benefit from the flexibility of interim resource as a result.

So, to Q4 and what is ahead.

You will have already surmised that reading the future is not my speciality and a somewhat lacklustre prediction would be that I largely expect Q4 to be more of the same. Cue a sigh of disappointment!  At this stage, I don’t foresee a huge surge in recruitment activity, but I am confident in predicting that a steady demand will still be there. Corporate change, business and team evolution, and people’s continued desire to progress and develop will mean that companies will still need to hire and people will still want to move roles.

With added complexity in a market comes added complexity in hiring and it is in this market that I feel we at W&A can add the most value.

Attracting the best and most diverse talent in tougher economic conditions can be tricky – for example, the early post-qualified years continue to be a job/candidate demographic that experiences wage growth and hiring challenges. Likewise making progressive career moves, and getting the right roles in the right settings, are vital to future career prospects. This is where I believe we can really benefit our clients and candidates, using our expertise to get them the best matches and so we look ahead with cautious optimism and would urge anyone thinking of recruiting or making a change to get in touch, whatever the market, as we would love to hear from you and to offer real-time insight and assistance

Guy Gracie, Managing Director