• Swindon & Wiltshire Economy
• Wednesday July 16 2025

Jobs market cooled during Flaming June – report

The UK’s labour market cooled during the hottest June on record, according to the latest figures.

UK Report on Jobs: South of England survey from The Recruitment and Employment Confederation and accountants KPMG added that the number of people looking for work jumped at the fastest pace since the pandemic – often linked to redundancies.

A combination of improved staff supply and reduced demand for workers placed downward pressure on pay, with both starting salaries and temp wages rising at historically weak rates, said the report.

Recruitment consultancies operating in the South of England registered a further drop in permanent placements in June, thereby stretching the current period of decline to 27 months.

The rate of contraction eased only slightly from May to remain substantial overall.

According to anecdotal evidence, companies had paused or cut back on hiring due to weaker confidence around the economic outlook, but also due to efforts to reduce costs.

The South of England recorded the steepest drop in permanent placements of all four monitored English areas for the third month running.

Demand for permanent workers across the South of England continued to decline at the end of the second quarter at the fastest of all four monitored English areas.

David Williams, Bristol office senior partner at KPMG UK, said: “June saw very little positive change in hiring activity across the South of England.

“For the third month in a row, it recorded the steepest decline in permanent hires of all monitored regions – evidence that businesses are holding back on recruitment amid ongoing economic uncertainty.

“Meanwhile, redundancies and reduced job opportunities have expanded the talent pool at the fastest rate since late 2020, and in turn, eased some of the upward pressure on pay, softening salary inflation as demand decreases.”

The KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs: South of England is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to around 150 recruitment and employment consultancies in the South of England.

Dan Barfoot, operations manager at CMD Recruitment, who contributes to the report, said: “The slowdown was near enough a certainty given the economic conditions, and we have many companies now looking at their headcount along with certain ones asking people to return to the office and using it as an exercise to decrease headcount organically with no redundancy process.

“There is still a lot of competition on roles, but for a lot of people whom may be getting made redundant its often a case that they need a role now so will take the role with the shortest hiring process duration.

“Summer holidays are coming fact, and it will be interesting what September brings.”

Image by Anna Shvets at Pexels

Latest: Demand for permanent workers in South declines at fastest rate since June 2020