As the employment landscape continues to evolve rapidly, Omni’s latest UK Resourcing Market Insight Report offers a comprehensive analysis of current labour trends and challenges, taking into account reports from the CIPD and the ONS.
For the best part of three years, the story of the UK labour market has been one of gradual cooling. Confidence subdued, vacancies drifting down, employers holding their nerve rather than growing. That story is still broadly true, yet this quarter’s data suggests something more interesting sitting underneath it.
Permanent hiring has stopped falling for the first time in nearly 4 years. Temporary billings are rising. Demand for short-term workers has picked up for the first time in two years. The shape of demand is shifting in ways that matter for how organisations plan their people.
For HR and talent leaders, that creates a more nuanced challenge than a simple candidate-led or employer-led market. Every hire is under more scrutiny, budgets are tighter, and the question in most boardrooms has quietly moved on from “how many people do we need to recruit?” to “what capability will this business need, where will we find it, and what is the smartest way to access it?”.
That distinction is doing a lot of work this quarter.
UK employment rate (April to June 2026)
UK unemployment rate
of employers plan to recruit over the next 3 months
