UK Temp Billings Hit Three-Year High as Permanent Hiring Keeps Sliding
The News
The latest KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs, compiled by S&P Global from a panel of around 400 recruitment consultancies, found temp billings rose at the quickest rate since April 2023 in June. Permanent staff appointments continued to fall, though the pace of decline eased to its softest in three months. Total demand for staff weakened at the quickest rate since January, driven by a steeper drop in permanent vacancies. Redundancies continued to push up candidate availability, while starting salaries and wages rose at the strongest rate since January as employers competed for scarce skills. Lisa Fernihough, Vice Chair Advisory at KPMG UK, linked the pivot to temporary work to chief executives 'still facing into global uncertainty' and preferring flexible hiring without long-term commitments.
Why It Matters
The split between surging temp billings and flatlining permanent placements is the clearest signal yet that UK employers want capability without commitment. For TA leaders, this means your contingent workforce strategy is no longer a side channel — it's where the actual hiring momentum lives. If your ATS, vendor management system, and statement-of-work processes aren't integrated, you're operating a two-speed function where the fast lane runs on spreadsheets. The rise in starting salaries for scarce skills, against a backdrop of broadly weakening demand, also means your compensation benchmarking needs to be role-specific, not blanket. Nursing, medical, care, and engineering were the only sectors to see improved permanent demand.
Taking Action
All action is situated in your corporate context. These are starting points, not prescriptions — choose what fits.
Connect
Who to talk with in your enterprise
Your head of contingent workforce — review whether your temp-to-perm conversion rate has shifted. If employers are using temp as a trial period, your conversion pipeline matters more than ever. Your compensation lead — the report shows starting pay rising for scarce skills even as overall demand falls. Ask whether your offer decline data correlates with specific role families where competitors are outbidding you.
Inspect
What to take a closer look at
Pull your permanent placement volume and temp billings for the last six months and chart them side by side. If temp is growing while permanent flatlines or declines, check whether your recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) contract or internal SLAs reflect that reality. Many TA teams still measure success on permanent hires alone, ignoring the channel where activity is actually happening.
Reflect
What to think about more deeply
If your CEO asked tomorrow whether you're hiring or hedging, could you honestly say which one — and would the data back you up?