The latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics reveal the UK job market continues to cool, with vacancies down 44,000 on the quarter, continuing a trend of quarterly declines every month for the last three years.
ONS Director of Economic Statistics, Liz McKeown, reported these falls were concentrated in the hospitality and retail sectors, highlighting that this experience isn’t uniform across all industries.
“Taken together, these latest figures point to a continued cooling of the labour market. The number of employees on payroll has now fallen in ten of the last twelve months, with these falls concentrated in hospitality and retail. Job vacancies, likewise, have continued to fall, also driven by fewer opportunities in these industries.”
While the overall level of vacant positions continues to drop, the pressure on average earnings to maintain pace with the cost of living shows no sign of slowing. The latest stats show average employee regular earnings (excluding bonuses) are up 5% and total earnings (including bonuses) are up 4.6%.
While declining vacancies reduce competition in some sectors, sustained wage growth adds pressure on budgets. This dynamic is pushing HR and TA leaders to plan further ahead, aligning talent strategies with long-term business resilience. Forward-looking organisations are responding not with reactive hiring, but with strategic, data-led workforce planning that reduces risk and maximises their current resourcing model.
In a market where leadership stability underpins investor and employee confidence, reducing the gap between exits and onboarding of senior leaders is mission-critical. Succession Planning minimises the time key roles remain empty, facilitating smooth transitions and helping to maintain business momentum in the face of change. It is helpful for both planned and unexpected departures of senior talent up to and including the CEO level.
Understanding the capabilities already within your workforce can uncover underutilised potential, while strategic upskilling reduces hiring costs and increases agility in responding to future skills needs. This approach enables organisations to uncover hidden skillsets, developing employees to meet future skills needs while increasing engagement and retention.
Building a warm Talent Pipeline before roles go live reduces time to hire and enables more proactive decision-making. This is especially valuable in niche or senior-level hiring where competition remains high and building relationships with candidates is critical to securing the right candidate.
By mapping the market early, organisations can identify multiple suitable candidates through one research effort — enabling cost-effective hiring and providing a better negotiating position gained through real-time market insight. Here at Talent Insight Group, our project-based approach allows you to hire multiple candidates from the same map without incurring additional costs.
Looking beyond your organisation, Talent Intelligence provides benchmarking data on remuneration, organisational design, and DE&I, helping you stay competitive and aligned with market best practices. Organisations can also use Talent Intelligence to guide location strategy, whether considering a location change or expansion, Talent Intelligence provides real-time insights into available talent, helping guide your decision.
Need support aligning your workforce strategy with the current market?
At Talent Insight Group, we help organisations futureproof their talent through insight-led talent solutions. Our expert team can help you map the talent market, build your talent pipeline and inform your strategic decisions with world-class talent intelligence.
While most businesses recognise its importance, 60% of companies say they do not have a succession plan for their CEO and only 14% of businesses say they do well with succession planning as a whole. Fill in the form to get the full guide
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