Tax – UK Finance Labour Market Trends Report, April 2024
Private Client Tax Roles surge as Government changes Non-Dom rules
Key findings include:
- Tax roles surge by 32% in London
- Personal tax had the greatest increase, up 480% in the monthly average YoY.
- The Media sector saw the most significant tax-role growth, up 225%.
- PWC is a company to watch, with a 326.7% increase in Tax vacancies
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
The Government’s Spring 2024 budget has changed the shape of taxation in the UK for high net-worth individuals who are not UK-domiciled. The implications of this change are yet to be seen properly; therefore, when looking at the recruitment patterns, we are forecasting an increase in tax vacancies this year compared to last year’s 32% in London, and 46% regionally. This has meant that London has dropped to 41.6% of the total this year, compared to 44.6% last year. With that, overall, we are forecasting 40% more tax vacancies in 2024 compared to 2023. This is according to the latest UK Finance Labour Market Trends report by Morgan McKinley and market data analysts Vacancysoft.
Tom Wood – Senior Manager – Morgan McKinley comments:
“The US/UK tax market is seeing continued demand for tax professionals at all levels, with most practices actively hiring. Boutiques led by former Practice Partners are gaining significant market share, leveraging their networks to recruit former colleagues. Private Client Tax is seeing a surge in demand across all levels following a busy UK Tax season.”
480% increase in demand for Personal Tax Roles
Vacancies in Personal tax have seen the greatest surge, with an increase of 480% in the monthly average compared to 2023, making it the fastest-growing area being recruited for. The other specialist area worth mentioning is Indirect tax, with the overall increase being 71.8%. Equally, this has remained at around 10% of the total throughout. Corporate tax remains the largest specialist area, with 121 vacancies this year so far. Indeed, this is a 64.6% uplift from last year.
Meanwhile, while London remains the largest area for vacancies overall, the biggest growth has been in South West, with a surge of 97.9%, making it the second-largest region.
The Media sector leads in recruitment within Tax roles
The media sector has had the most significant growth overall, with vacancies increasing by 225%. For context, in 2023, 32 tax vacancies were published by media companies, whereas 26 were already published in Q1 of this year. Unsurprisingly, Accountancy has the majority of the vacancies, with an increase of 65.7% YoY. The Legal sector has also seen a significant uplift in activity, with vacancies up by 40%.
Financial Services remains the second largest industry, equally after a muted year so far in Insurance (tax vacancies down by 20% this year), along with the Banking sector having a marginal increase of 7%, this has meant that the industry overall has shrunk, relatively.
PWC is the company to watch, with 2024 monthly volumes up 326.7% on 2023
When ranking the organisations PWC leads the way overall, with 80 tax vacancies in Q1, which was higher than the total for all of 2023. In terms of the rest of the Big Four, EY is second in the table and has recorded an increase of 79.3%, whilst Deloitte has had significantly smaller volumes.
Outside of the Accountancy sector, JP Morgan is the leading recruiter with 9 vacancies so far this year.
Finally, among the Accounting firms outside the Big Four, Mazars is leading the way. Last year, they posted 21 tax vacancies, whereas so far this year, they have posted 22, so more in Q1 than in all of 2023.
Access the full report to boost your recruitment with the latest market data!
All data featured in this report is available in the Vacancy Analytics platform, which is updated in real-time and allows for interactive analysis, giving you the power to drill into trends to identify the key insights you need to power your business.
If you would like to book a consultation with us to analyse trends in your market, you can schedule one here.