Boom time for agencies with freelancers, temps and permanent hires on a merry-go-round!

The impact of Covid and employment trends

It seems that the impacts of Covid over the last two years on the job market continue to manifest themselves. One particular strand is for workers to weigh up the pros and cons of Freelance or Temp Vs. Permanent Hire.

Complementary news stories, published only three days apart, on the popular temporary staff and contractor website Freelance Informer essentially showcased two trends that have become quite noteworthy.

This report, More Skilled Professionals To Enter Freelancing In 2022, focused on research around The Great Resignation, where employees that have rethought their work-life balance and opportunities are moving into freelancing and contracting.

On the other side, the story, Disgruntled Freelancers: Employers Have You On Their Radar, shows how employers and recruiters are looking to capitalise by driving the opposite movement of freelancers into permanent full, or part-time roles.

What freelancers, temps and permanent hires are thinking

Some of the key stats that indicate what many workers are thinking include:

• Around two-thirds of UK freelancers and temporary workers moved or considered shifting, to permanent, part-time or full-time work last year.
• 52% of freelancers, 42% of temporary workers and 54% of permanent workers said job security was their biggest concern with ‘gig’ work’.
• 46% of freelancers, 29% of temporary workers and 38% of permanent workers cited pay as the biggest concern.

With many having concerns over the highest inflation rate for 30 years and the cost of living crisis, it seems that job security, a decent wage and, of course, a strong degree of job flexibility, such as WFH, are key factors.

On the flipside, it seems that sectors such as design, marketing and computing/IT have the biggest proportion of freelance workers providing skilled services, and stands at 53%. This is an eight percent increase in the past two years, showing there is real appetite for greater career autonomy and self-determination over for how much money, where and who to work for.

One key takeaway from these trends is that for recruiters, it’s an interesting time. Overall there is a shortage of skilled labour, we can’t get away from that. However, the market remains very fluid with workers moving from freelance and contracting and into permanent roles, and vice versa.

This sort of worker movement means that the recruitment market is set for a boom time as some workers ride the merry-go-round from permanent to freelance and others go in the reverse direction.

RecTech that maximises agency bottom lines from ETZ

Whether we are in a boom time or not, it is vital that every business finds efficiency. Technology is pivotal to daily operations of recruitment businesses. However, technology can be a minefield, where poor decisions may cost you dear.

ETZ’s market leading timesheet, invoicing and payment solution lets recruitment agencies transform efficiency of back office processing. To find out more about how we simplify the complexity of RecTech for agencies like yours, call us on 0800 311 2266 or book a demo.