New client activity softens

Recruitment Industry Benchmark's new Index.

The latest information from Recruitment Industry Benchmarking’s RIB Index shows that, across the first five months of 2019, the proportion of new clients billed by all RIB recruiters, as a percentage of total clients, was significantly lower than in the last two years.

Set into historical context for the median RIB recruiter, new clients made up around a third of total clients billed in both Jan-May 2017 and 2018. By Jan-May 2019, however, it had dropped to 19%. Similarly, among those with higher proportions of new clients within the total billed (the upper quartile), the percentage dropped from around a half in 2017 and 2018 to 37% in 2019. And within the lower quartile of recruiters – those with much lower proportions of new clients as a percentage of the total billed – the percentage halved from 20% in Jan-May 2017 to 10% in the first five months of 2019. 

Belinda Johnson runs employment research consultancy, Worklab, and is Associate Knowledge & Insight Director of Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB). The RIB Index provides bespoke confidential reports on industry benchmarks and trends. See www.ribindex.com; [email protected]: 020 8544 9807. The RIB is a strategic partner of the REC.  

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