UK recruitment industry turnover will fall by 16% this year, recruiters have heard.

Speaking at an APSCo (Association of Professional Staffing Companies) breakfast seminar in London, Sue Dodd, director of Agile Intelligence said that based on government figures, total industry turnover will decline to £29.9bn in 2009 compared to £35.66bn in 2008.

Dodd said although there were some signs of stabilisation, the industry was “still bumping along the bottom”.

And although Dodd suggested some signs of improvement had developed on the temporary side, particularly in the finance sector, she didn’t see the permanent market “picking up to any great extent”.

Dodd said that while the recession might be coming to an end, the outlook for recruitment would continue to be patchy, with unemployment continuing to rise until the middle of 2010.

She advised recruiters to carry out an assessment of how cuts in public spending might affect their businesses.

Looking ahead to 2010, Dodd said: “If the industry manages to increases its sales turnover by 5% next year, it will have done well.”