The wider UK labour market is in a careful mood. The market is currently described as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies have dropped below pre-pandemic levels Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK. That tells you employers are holding on to good people and thinking hard before they open a role.
There are signs of a turn, though. Permanent placements have finally stabilised, ending a decline in place since Liz Truss's premiership 45 months ago, while temporary billings increased for a fourth consecutive month REC / KPMG Report on Jobs (S&P Global). For finance leaders, that mix of steadier permanent demand and rising temporary work is a useful signal: the appetite to hire is coming back, but it's deliberate.
The roles that stick are the higher-qualified ones. In the financial services sector, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3-5 GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report. In plain terms, employers are hiring for degree-level and above judgment, oversight and advice, not the routine processing that AI agents now pick up.
That shift sits inside a bigger move across the economy. For the total of AI-related occupations, the net change ranges from approximately 696,000 jobs in the Automation Scenario to 1,072,000 in the Technological Opportunities Scenario, with replacement demand rising from 3,077,000 to 3,193,000 jobs across these scenarios AI Skills for Life and Work: Labour market and skills projections - GOV.UK. The headline is simple: tasks move, roles stay, and the demand for people who can use these tools well keeps growing.
Start with the judgment, not the task list. If agents now handle reconciliation, reporting and first-pass analysis, write the role around what a person adds on top: risk calls, client trust, regulatory reasoning and clear decisions. That focus matches where the sector is actually hiring, at RQF 6+ GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report.
Speed matters most when the market is cautious. When you do find the right person, a slow process is how you lose them.
This is where we help. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people who fit the judgment and qualifications your finance roles need, then manage the process end to end so you can move fast on the right person. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell us the role you need to fill and we'll get started with Reed.ai today.
