It’s official. The green shoots of recovery in the technology industry are emerging. This past week vacancies hit levels only seen previously a handful of times in the past year. After a challenging 2023, where VC/PE funding became significantly harder to obtain (TMT deals fell 24% on the year before, to the lowest levels in five years) looking ahead, the signs are positive and London in particular is picking the pace.
Looking ahead we are forecasting a fast start to the year, with Q1 projected to be the busiest business quarter of the year in terms of new vacancies.
Since the war in Ukraine began, the exposure the UK has regarding energy has become ever more clear. The move to renewable energy sources is admirable, equally the challenge has been the seasonality leading to surges and shortfalls, where the steps the Government have taken to resolve this are starting to manifest, with jobs in Energy in Scotland now hitting record levels.
After what has been a quiet year for legal vacancies across commerce and industry, we have seen a significant surge this November, where the total (170) was higher than any month in 2019, the last year before the pandemic period.
If the Conservative party are to win the next election, they will need not just a serious implosion within the Labour party, but also for the UK economy to pick up in a way where they can take the credit. Longer term, the UK remains mired in the same issues that it has had for some time now, limited productivity increases, an ever increasing national debt (we last ran a budget surplus over 15 years ago) and ultimately most importantly, GDP per capita falling.
In what could become a landmark speech for Financial Services, Ursula von der Leyen has thrown down the gauntlet in a bid to create a new stock exchange to rival any in the world. Her plan, to unify the bourses of Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid and Milan into one, would result in an exchange which would be the largest in Europe by some distance (including London) and be able to compete directly with New York, or anywhere else.
