Revenue and recruiter numbers up significantly, report reveals

Nick Elvin

Total recruitment industry turnover increased by 9.7% in 2014/15 to reach £31.5 billion with growth delivered by improved margins in the permanent market and increased volumes of temporary, contract and interim placements.

That is the headline finding from the eighth annual report on the recruitment industry’s performance from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), released today.

The REC’s Recruitment Industry Trends Survey 2014/15 shows that 634,000 people were placed into permanent roles via a recruiter in 2014/15, meaning that since the recession in 2008/09 recruitment agencies have helped four million people find a new permanent job.

Just 1% of agencies working on permanent placements are accepting margins below 10% whereas more than a quarter (26%) are securing margins of 20% and over (up from 8% last year).

On any given day in 2014/15 1.2 million people were out on temporary, contract or interim assignments via a recruiter, up 3.6% from 2013/14.

Meanwhile, the proportion of agencies supplying temporary/contract staff for margins below 10% has increased by seven percentage points to 17% in 2014/15, while one in five agencies (21%) are still securing margins of 20% or more.

The survey reveals that more than 103,000 people now work in the recruitment industry, up 7% since last year, while average annual sales per consultant working in permanent recruitment were £96,000. On any given day, every consultant working in temporary/contract recruitment had 32 workers out on assignment.

REC chief executive Kevin Green said: “This is a very exciting time for recruitment. Overall turnover has increased, employers are making more use of agency workers, contractors and interims, and recruiters filling permanent vacancies are commanding better margins in a tightening jobs market. This report provides invaluable benchmarking data for our members for assessing how their businesses are performing compared to overall industry averages and to agencies operating in their sector.

“Every day recruiters change people’s lives and make businesses more prosperous. Our industry is the engine that drives the UK labour market, enabling people to find work and businesses to find the talent they need to succeed.

“At the REC, we have devoted a lot of time and energy over recent years to promoting
recruitment as a career of choice and to driving up standards through initiatives such as our own compliance test and introducing recruitment apprenticeships. So it’s particularly encouraging to see the number of people choosing recruitment as a career once again totals over 100,000.”