The wider UK labour market sets the backdrop for every freight hire. The picture is cautious: the market is best described as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies now sitting below pre-pandemic levels the Low Pay Commission's 2025 report. That means demand is real but employers are moving carefully.
Recent vacancy data adds nuance. In August to October 2025, the largest volume increase in vacancies landed in professional, scientific and technical activities, up by 5,000 the ONS Vacancies and jobs bulletin for November 2025. Logistics and supply chain employers compete in this same pool, so a slow, unfocused hiring process risks losing good people to faster movers. The monthly KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs remains the sharpest gauge of how permanent and temporary demand is shifting month to month.
An air freight operator is the person who turns a customer enquiry into a moving shipment. In practice, that means quoting rates and lead times, booking capacity with airlines and consolidators, raising air waybills, and coordinating pickup and delivery through road partners. It's a live, deadline-driven role where one missed cut-off can cost a customer a day or more.
The capability a forwarder gains from a strong hire is broad. Look for these building blocks:
A blend of these skills is what separates an operator who simply processes bookings from one who protects margin and keeps customers loyal.
Two dynamics make freight forwarder recruitment tricky. First, entry-level hiring is under pressure across skilled sectors: in engineering, for example, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a nine-percentage-point gap GOV.UK's snapshot of entry-level hiring. Fewer junior routes into technical roles means fewer people learning the trade from the ground up, which tightens the pipeline of future operators.
Second, specialist demand keeps rising elsewhere and pulls talent away. Even in a subdued economy, businesses chased specialist skills in areas like AI, data and cyber security Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026. Logistics competes with those sectors for capable, systems-literate people. That's why a clear role definition and a fast process matter so much: the operators you want have options.
Start with a job description built around outcomes, not a wish list. Separate the must-haves (DGR certification, customs experience, a specific airline gateway) from the nice-to-haves you can train. Given the tighter junior pipeline shown in the entry-level hiring snapshot, decide early whether you're buying finished experience or hiring for potential and developing it in-house.
Then move quickly. In a low-hire market where good people weigh several offers, a slow process is the most common reason a strong operator slips away. Shortlist on the handful of skills that genuinely predict performance, interview for how someone handles a missed cut-off or an angry shipper, and keep every stage tight. Clear communication with people you're hiring mirrors the clear communication you need them to give your customers.
We built our recruitment agent to make that fast, focused process the default. It searches a database of 15 million candidates to surface people who match the specific capability you need, from DGR-certified operators to customs specialists, and it manages the recruitment end to end so your team stays on the freight, not the admin. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell Reed.ai the role today and see your ranked shortlist.
