There is a lot of noise in the market right now, and most of it is not particularly helpful if you are a business owner trying to get the right person into the right seat. So let me cut through it and tell you what we are actually seeing.
The headline numbers tell one story. UK job vacancies have fallen to around 711,000, the lowest level since early 2021, and sitting some 54% below the peak of 1.3 million recorded in mid-2022. Unemployment has edged up to a post-pandemic high of 5.2%. On paper, that sounds like good news for employers: more candidates, less competition.
The reality, as many of you will recognise, is rather more complicated.
More applications does not mean better applications. Hiring decisions are taking longer, not shorter, as more people get involved in the sign-off process and more stages get added to already stretched interview processes. The average hiring process now runs to 56 days. Totaljobs put the average time to hire at around eight weeks. At Aspire Jobs, our average time to fill across the last quarter was just over 20 days. That gap is not down to luck. It is down to running a tight, well-communicated process on behalf of our clients.
There is a catch though. When a process slows down, it is rarely the market at fault. It is usually the number of decision-makers involved, unclear briefs, or interview stages that accumulate without adding much genuine assessment value. We see this happen an awful lot, and it costs businesses candidates they really wanted.
Around 62% of candidates lose interest if they don't hear back within two weeks of applying. Good candidates, the ones you actually want, still have options even in a softer market. They will not wait indefinitely while a business works out whether it can get three directors in a room on the same day.
What the businesses hiring well right now tend to have in common is straightforward: a clear brief, a defined process, quick decisions, and honest communication throughout. SMEs have a genuine structural advantage here. Faster sign-off, direct access to the people who actually run the business, and the ability to make an offer without it going through four layers of HR.
The market has changed, but the fundamentals of good recruitment have not. If you want to talk through your current process, or you have a role you have been sitting on while you waited for conditions to improve, now is the time to act. Call us.
Sources: Office for National Statistics, ONS Employment in the UK (April 2026);
Totaljobs Hiring Trends Update (March 2026);
Modern CV UK Job Interview Statistics (2026);
iSmartRecruit Time-to-Fill Guide (2026).
We've filled a few jobs this month:
- Customer Service Manager, £50k, Bournemouth
- Part-time Finance Assistant, Bournemouth
- Internal Sales Advisor, £25k, Ringwood
- Trainee Property Portfolio Manager, £30k, Ringwood
- Trainee Accounts Assistant, £26.5k, Ringwood
- Trainee Legal Assistant, £25k, Dorchester
If you are looking to hire, we would love to hear from you.