In his opening remarks, REC CEO Neil Carberry acknowledged the past year-and-a-half of weaker demand for recruitment services, “moving beyond the post-pandemic boom years of 2021 and 2022 and dealing with a recession”. He emphasised that because of “historic changes” to the labour market, “restricted supply has become rather more of a feature, than a bug, in the UK’s workforce planning”. 

He went on to say: “Firms are struggling with the changing expectations of our own workforce in the profession, and on a search for new routes to productivity. And, as part of that, the pace of technological change means that our businesses have new opportunities and threats emerging, every day.

“This is a challenging trading environment,” Carberry continued, “and one which also faces the prospect of a different regulatory environment.”

He joked: “The prime minister [Rishi Sunak] kindly called a General Election for next week just to help me emphasise that!”

However, Carberry encouraged the audience of recruiters and suppliers: “The fundamentals support the idea of a strong professional services sector emerging from all of the changes we see right now. More challenging candidate markets and rapid changes of technology favour specialists over DIY approaches. And we can […] build those partnerships in ways that are mutually beneficial for clients, agencies and candidates.

“There is a long way to go on this,” he warned. “International leaders looking at the UK often ask me why our market is so transactional. But these are the learned behaviours of a different labour market – one that has gone forever. We need educate both our clients and our candidates on what comes next. And we need to change our businesses. 

“While this new future may support some of the traditional virtues of the industry, like strong client relationships, many of the processes and approaches of the past 20 years will not remain effective. We create our place in the future, by building it ourselves,” Carberry said. 

“Change starts with us – we are not passive actors in what happens next.”

The REC Live 24 conference is being held in North London.

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