As we move into 2025, the recruitment landscape across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK continues to evolve.
As we move into 2025, the recruitment landscape across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK continues to evolve. Our latest annually-released State of Recruitment and State of Talent Acquisition reports look at the trends of the market throughout 2024, to reveal a mix of challenges and opportunities facing recruitment agencies and in-house hiring teams.
Understanding the insights in our reports – as well as commentary from leading industry experts – will empower you with the knowledge you need to tackle 2025 head-on and set yourself up for ongoing future success.
Below, we give you a quick snapshot of what you can expect from the reports – be sure to download your free copy to get the full experience.
Download the 2025 State of Recruitment Report.
Download the 2025 State of Talent Acquisition Report.
For recruitment agencies: A market in transition
Despite a softening in job demand, the UK market is showing early, hopeful signs of stabilisation. This could represent a promising shift for both UK recruiters who have been feeling the stretch over the last few years, and for those in Australia and New Zealand, as these markets tend to follow similar trends.
Candidate applications have surged by 42% year-on-year. This presents challenges, of course, but equally brings with it great opportunities for agencies looking to ramp up their recruitment efforts. How can agencies navigate these rising candidate applications and streamline their hiring processes while maintaining quality placements? Client retention, business development, and having the right tech in play will all be essential – but more on that in the report.
Other key takeaways from our State of Recruitment Report include:
- Temp placements continue to dominate, making up more than 80% of roles in Australia and New Zealand.
- Recruiters using their own databases are filling roles 5.6x faster than those relying on job boards.
- There’s still a delta between how many jobs are created by recruiters and how many placements are made, suggesting a gap in conversions or processes
For in-house hiring teams: Candidates are surging
Hiring teams are facing an unprecedented 59% increase in candidate applications, representing the highest levels ever recorded. When we look at the jobs created by talent acquisition professionals versus how many were actually filled, there’s quite a significant gap.
This all suggests that in-house hiring teams are feeling immense pressure. It’s the ideal time to look at automations and technologies designed to improve processes around talent pool nurturing, candidate experiences, and general efficiencies.
Other key takeaways from our State of Talent Acquisition Report include:
- 95% of hires still come from job advertising, despite teams filling positions two weeks faster when proactively sourcing candidates using their JobAdder database.
- Talent teams are being stretched thin, with many taking on broader responsibilities beyond recruitment, making it challenging (but still crucial) to provide exemplary candidate experiences.
- Job creation has remained relatively steady, and temporary roles grew by 25% in ANZ, reflecting a potential shift toward more flexible hiring models
What this means for you
Both agencies and in-house hiring teams must refine their strategies to remain competitive. Leveraging proactive sourcing, automation, and strong client/candidate relationships will be critical to success in 2025.
Want to see the full data and insights? Download the State of Recruitment Report or State of Talent Acquisition Report now to explore how you can stay ahead in an evolving talent market.
Download the 2025 State of Recruitment Report or the 2025 State of Talent Acquisition Report today.
