Blog

The impact of the coronavirus on businesses across the UK and globally has been dramatic. Most sectors have been hit hard, recruitment included, and we’ve been extremely saddened to hear of agencies being forced to make tough decisions, including making redundancies.

The recruitment industry relies heavily on cash flow and with permanent placements and temp billings falling at quickest rates since global financial crisis, it’s an extremely precarious time for agencies across the board.

Since the Coronavirus hit the UK, the recruitment industry has reported that:

• Demand for staff has fallen for first time in over a decade
• Permanent placements decline at fastest rate since February 2009 as the spread of the virus led many clients to postpone or cancel recruitment plans
• Temp billings fall at steepest rate for 11 years as clients become more wary of taking on new staff due to greater economic uncertainty
• Total job vacancies across the UK were down -3.7% on an annual basis in the three months to February.

For us at Vibe Recruit and like so many other recruitment providers, the focus now is on how we survive the coming weeks and ensure we are in a strong position to bounce back once the markets pick up again.

The dramatic and vast impacts of this virus outbreak have shown that no matter what our industry or line of work, we must stand together and support each other. We are all in this together, and we will be relying on each other to come out the other side.

Although it is unclear when things will start moving again, we want to be optimistic and look to the future. If you know the team at Vibe, you’ll know we can’t help but be positive and look for a silver lining! Businesses and the wider economy will start to recover, companies will start hiring again and we will be here to support them.

In the meantime, we think it’s important for all of us to strengthen what we do have and for us, that’s our people. The team at Vibe is what sets us apart from other agencies. Our ethos of working together underpins everything we do and has never felt stronger than in the current climate. Despite all the challenges we’ve faced as a business we’ve kept our positive spirit and been able to support each other as well as many of our clients.

If this sounds like the kind of company you’d like to work for and you’re an experienced recruiter, please get in touch with our Company Director Paul, for an informal chat about your career.

T: 01792 304760
M: 07850 953750
E: Paul.southard@viberecruit.com