Number of recruitment industry start-ups reaches record high

Research from specialist PR firm for the recruitment industry ClearlyPR has shown that the number of start-ups in the recruitment industry in 2017 has reached a record high.

The figures, which were obtained under a Freedom of Information Request from Companies House, showed that 9,001 recruitment agencies have been started since January 2017, bringing the total number of agencies now trading in the UK to a record high of 35,275.

Established

ClearlyPR found that an average of 818 recruitment agencies were established each month between 1st January 2017 and 30th November 2017, an increase of 28 per cent from the number of companies set up in 2016.

March saw the biggest increase in registered recruitment start-ups, with 1,208 new companies being set up. This was followed by January and August, with the number of start-ups registered during these months standing at 1,132 and 1,067 respectively.

The data showed that 5,709 recruitment agencies were established in the first six months of this year, up from 4,297 in the final half of 2016.

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) has predicted that recruitment agencies will fill 56 per cent of all vacancies over the next year, a rise of 10 per cent from 2015.

Rise

Commenting on the figures, ClearlyPR Managing Director Paul MacKenzie-Cummins said: “This pours cold water on the hypothesis that employer confidence is waning. In fact, the opposite would appear to be true.”

He added: “Last year saw a doubling in the number of recruitment agencies that were founded in 2015, with the sharpest rise coming in the six months after the Brexit vote. Our research has shown that the momentum not only continued into 2017, it gathered pace.”