Looking at this year by business quarter, we can see that there was a 6.8% increase in legal vacancies across commerce and industry in Q3 compared to Q2, which bodes well for the remainder of the year. Q4 is typically the busiest quarter of the year for vacancies overall, so we would expect to see that translate into vacancies for legal counsel. This is according to the latest UK Legal Labour Market Trends report by Search, and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
Keeping an eye on regulatory changes impacting your sector is a key way to stay one step ahead of the market. Recently announced, the Data Protection Act 2023 has caused a rise in hiring data privacy lawyers, making it the top skill in demand for in-house legal counsel nationwide. Data Privacy now accounts for 8.4% of all in-house legal vacancies, surpassing other specialist functions.
Recruitment levels are returning to 2019 levels. However, what has changed is that more vacancies are happening proportionately within the Banks. So for context, in 2019 we saw 381 legal vacancies in banks, in 2023 this is set to be over 500. In contrast, within the law firms, in 2019 we saw 577 banking vacancies, whereas this year we estimate the total to be barely over 400. This is according to the latest UK Legal Labour Market Trends report by Search, and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
Although the economic slowdown is impacting Law Firm recruitment overall, Litigation/Dispute resolution is an area which is less dependent on the economic cycle than others, as a result, this has become the second largest area law firms have been recruiting for this year, according to the latest legal report by Search and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
Although the economic slowdown is impacting Law Firm recruitment overall, Litigation/Dispute resolution is an area which is less dependent on the economic cycle than others, as a result, this has become the second largest area law firms have been recruiting for this year, according to the latest legal report by Search and labour market data analysts Vacancysoft.
