UK employment market shows ‘rays of light’ for jobseekers with upturn in pay, study shows - business live

Robert Walters boss says legal, technology and accounting recruitment is picking up, as data shows temporary vacancies rise for first time in two years

Toby Fowlston, chief executive the recruitment company Robert Walters, talked of “shards of light in certain parts of the world,” including the UK.

The company has just reported a 9% rise in net fee income in the first half of the year.

But technology in particular, the job flow hasn’t really been the challenge. The challenge has been the confidence levels, particularly of candidates to move. And I was really encouraged to see that starting salaries for permanent roles from the recent data are now at the fastest rate for six months. And we know temporary wage growth is continuing to increase as well.

People are impacted by the cost of living. People are impacted, particularly those with fixed rate mortgages, with interest rates having obviously shifted over the last three to five years. So our view is that you’ve got candidates now who are now actively starting to consider the move.

That’s not what we’re seeing at the moment. We’re seeing shards of light in certain parts of the world. The UK is most certainly one of them. So I’m actually quite encouraged by what we’re seeing in the UK.

We’ve got the budget coming up, in the autumn [on 28 October]. I think there is a great opportunity there to bring some real confidence back into the employment sector and remove some of the red tape that I think is prohibited. Some of the employers are making hiring decisions.

There may be an element of a “Burnham Bounce” in the survey, as the drop in temporary hiring and rise in permanent in July—usually a sign of falling uncertainty—sits oddly with the resumption of hostilities in the Middle East in July. So Sentiment could easily drop back somewhat.

Wage growth accelerated to the strongest since January, and the permanent salaries index lies above the 52.3 average seen in 2025, suggesting there has been no slowdown in pay growth over the past 18 months. Vacancy growth recovering and staff availability high but easing slightly also point to a labour market beginning to steady.