Manchester’s hiring market is turning. That makes the next three months critical.

By Gavin Reynolds, Founder, ALF Recruit

Manchester businesses have three months to get their January hiring right. Most won’t realise that until it’s too late.

For the best part of four years, permanent hiring across the UK has been in decline, and candidates have been easy to find. That’s changing. The latest KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs shows permanent placements stabilising after a 45-month slide, while candidate availability — still strong for now — is growing at its slowest pace in five months. At the same time, starting salaries have been rising at their fastest rate in six months, as employers compete harder for people with the right skills. Put simply: the market that’s made hiring easy and comparatively cheap for the last few years is starting to close on both fronts at once.

That shift lands at exactly the wrong moment for anyone planning a January start. Work backwards from January and the arithmetic is unforgiving. A proper search and interview process takes several weeks on its own — sourcing, screening, first interviews, second interviews, offer. Add a notice period on top, and for a lot of finance, legal, and senior operational roles that’s a further three months before the person you’ve hired can actually walk through your door. Run those numbers from January backwards and you land somewhere very close to right now.

September, October, and November aren’t just the next three months on the calendar. They’re the entire window in which a January hire actually gets decided. Miss it, and you’re not just later than you’d like to be — you’re competing for a shrinking, more expensive pool of candidates at the exact moment the market is tightening back up.

What does moving in this window actually look like? It starts with treating the brief as urgent now, not in November when the gap becomes obvious. It means being realistic about notice periods when you’re mapping out a start date, rather than assuming candidates can materialise the month you decide you’re ready. And it means working with a recruitment partner who’s watching these market shifts in real time, not reacting to them after they’ve already cost you your first-choice candidate.

Twenty years in this market teaches you one thing above all: the businesses that move in this window get first pick, at a fairer price. The ones that wait find out in December that their shortlist evaporated weeks earlier, and that the candidates left are the ones everyone else missed too.

If January hiring is on your radar, the next three months are the whole game, not a head start.

Source: KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs, August 2026.

About ALF Recruit

ALF Recruit is a specialist finance, accountancy, business support, and financial services recruitment consultancy based in the North West, with nationwide coverage. Founded by Gavin Reynolds, the business takes a quality-over-quantity approach — building targeted shortlists rather than high-volume CV lists — and works across permanent, temporary, and executive recruitment for businesses ranging from SMEs to FTSE-listed organisations. For more information, visit alfrecruit.co.uk.