Quarterly market update from Balance Recruitment

Amongst the doom and gloom, some positive news from Balance Recruitment’s Legal Accounts division as they publish their Q2 2012 quarterly market update. 

Looking back to a year ago, their July 2011 update detailed a notable turndown in the UK Jobs market with the early year gains peaking in early May, before dipping down to a fairly sluggish rate for the remainder of the year.  It’s pleasing therefore to report that this hasn’t become an annual trend, with a new record quarter achieved for the business in Q2.

Richard Hooper, Director and Consultant at Balance Recruitment commented:

“Our ‘legal accounts’ division has yet to see any real dip in activity levels, despite the school holiday period being almost upon us. This would have been unusual even before the recession, so we can only be optimistic about what this is telling us about confidence in the legal sector. Unfortunately this isn’t reflective of the wider UK jobs market, which saw a significant decline in the number of permanent and temporary appointments in June.” 

The REC and KPMG ‘Report on Jobs’ highlights this first fall in permanent appointments for six months, with the sobering statistic that it was the sharpest decline since July 2009. The report speculates that the imminent distraction of the Olympics may have some bearing on this for London based employers, but with the nationwide statistics mirroring London’s, it seems wider concerns regarding the Eurozone and economic growth predictions may be the more likely explanations.

Hooper added: “Within the ‘legal accounts’ division we have seen a steady flow of new vacancies covering most areas of the legal finance function including finance systems teams. Areas in highest demand have been Revenue Control, eBilling focussed positions and senior management & financial accounting staff. eBilling in particular has been an area we are seeing  increasing demand, with the requirement for dedicated technically-minded individuals filtering down to the ‘silver circle’ firms.”

Candidate flow has also remained high during Q2, with a number of applicants coming on the market due to redundancy and many simply looking for new challenges and/or higher earnings. Balance report that ‘passive’ candidates are also becoming more open to considering new opportunities that are presented to them. Areas in short supply include finance systems analysts at entry-to-mid-level experience, individuals with operational exposure to eBilling and newly qualified accountants.