BSA 2024 Salary Guide MAIN v3 [PRINT] - Flipbook - Page 5
05
Permanent recruitment trends
In 2021 and 2022, hiring activity reached near
unprecedented levels. It was a time of frenzied
activity, as both employers and candidates entered
the market with great gusto once the uncertainty
surrounding Covid-19 and Brexit began to fade.
Our consultants were inundated with roles across
almost all the areas that we recruit into, creating
signi昀椀cant upward pressure on salaries as the
war for talent intensi昀椀ed. Nationally, the number
of active job adverts in the UK peaked at 1.85 million
by August 2022, according to the Recruitment
and Employment Confederation (REC).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the market has simmered
down in 2023. Rising concerns over the economy
and, in some cases, over-exuberant hiring after the
pandemic has tempered hiring intentions over the
last 12 months.
Nevertheless, demand has remained fairly buoyant.
Of昀椀ce for National Statistics data showed total
vacancies stood at 957,000 over the August to
October quarter in 2023. This was 156,000 more
than pre-pandemic 昀椀gures from January to March
2020, which indicates the need for talent is still there.
Top three factors preventing hiring
Compensation
Challenges
2023: 68%
2022: 78%
Insufficient Technical/
Regulatory Knowledge
2023: 53%
2022: 59%
Remote Working
Policies
2023: 29%
2022: 20%
The economy has also performed better than
expected, despite rising in昀氀ation and interest rates.
Last year, the Of昀椀ce for Budget Responsibility forecast
a UK recession in 2023, with the economy predicted
to contract 1.4%. Not only has this year been recession free, but also current estimates suggest the
economy will actually grow (albeit very modestly)
by 0.4%
What does this mean for hiring in 2024? Barclay
Simpson research shows that 75% of employers
of cyber security, governance, tech and change
professionals are likely to recruit additional permanent staff next year. This represents only a slight
decline from last year's report (79%).
There has also been little change in how dif昀椀cult
it is to 昀椀nd the right candidates. A whopping 97%
of organisations admit it's challenging to source
skilled talent in today's market, which is broadly
the same as last year (98%).
While salary demands continue to be the biggest
hurdle for employers, there was a drop in the number
of respondents who cited compensation challenges
as an impediment to recruitment (68% versus 78%
last year). This is in line with KPMG and REC data
that shows starting salary in昀氀ation edged downwards in 2023, reaching a 30-month low across
permanent roles in October.
Meanwhile, candidates possessing insuf昀椀cient
technical skills or regulatory knowledge was a
problem for 54% of employers, a slight dip on the
昀椀gures for 2022 and 2021 (59% in both years).
But the most notable shift in hiring challenges was
in relation to 昀氀exible working demands. Our data
shows there was a marked rise in the number of
employers who struggled to recruit because of
their remote working policies (29%).
This was an increase of nine percentage points
year on year – a trend that we will discuss in more
detail in the ‘Attitudes towards 昀氀exible working’
section of this report.
Among candidates, con昀椀dence has also taken
a hit over the lasty ear, although 88% remain
optimistic about their prospects in hte current
market (down from 94%) .