The decline in the hiring of interims appears to be over, says UK interim provider, Russam GMS.

According to Russam’s latest six month snapshot of 11,000 interim managers, the interim management market increased slightly by 0.9% from June to December last year, in stark contrast to the 15% drop in market activity recorded in the 12 months from June 2008 – June 2009.

Charles Russam, chairman of Russam GMS, told Recruiter: “There are certainly signs of optimism for the interim market and things are not going to get any worse.

“Despite the announcement that the recession is officially over, businesses will still be reluctant to hire staff on a full-time basis for the time being.”

Interim rates have also remained fairly stable. The average daily pay rate for interims across all sectors was £592 in December 2009, just a small decrease (1.5%) from £601 recorded in June 2008, and from the all time high of £611 recorded in December 2008.

Finance specialists were in demand and the number of finance interims on assignments rose from 16% in June 2009 to 22% in December.

They also saw their pay jump by 8.8% from £532 in June to £597 in December. Other high earners included IT specialists who commanded an average of £649 a day, up from £641 in June.

One major area of uncertainty is the public sector with planned government spending cuts, as well as projects potentially being frozen pre and post election.

Russam told Recruiter: “There will be pay cuts, but they won’t be draconian. In the last recession, the public sector was the engine of recovery.

“I expect more interims to be taken on for projects instead of management consultants, as interims are much more cost-effective.”