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Welcome to this week’s recruitment discussion with Jump! We’re diving into a critical business trend: 84% expect growth, yet only 47% will be hiring. This discrepancy should genuinely concern all recruitment owners and staffing agency leaders.
This video offers crucial insights for anyone in the recruiting and hiring space, emphasising the need for strategic adjustments in your recruitment business. Don’t miss out on understanding these vital statistics.
84% of recruitment leaders expect growth in 2026. But only 47% of companies are planning to hire. If that gap doesn’t worry you, it should — and here’s exactly why.
The old playbook of ‘hire more billers, do more activity, watch billing go up’ has quietly stopped working. Permanent placements have fallen month-on-month for two years. The UK recruitment industry contracted by 3% in 2025 — its first decline since the pandemic. And the average biller today earns almost exactly what they did 20 years ago, inflation-adjusted. The maths simply doesn’t add up anymore.
In this masterclass, Howard Greenwood and Dave Pye — coaches and mentors to recruitment agency owners across the UK — break down what’s actually happening inside recruitment businesses right now, and what the owners who are winning in 2026 are doing differently.
• Why the ‘hire to grow’ formula is broken — and the P&L data that proves it
• How four market forces (AI, margin compression, top biller flight, and client cost awareness) are hitting simultaneously — and why ignoring even one is a structural risk
• The exact revenue-per-head test you can run on your own P&L today to know if headcount is actually your growth lever
• Why your top biller is more at risk of leaving than you think — and the conversation most owners are avoiding that would keep them
• How to identify the single binding constraint in your business that, if removed, makes everything else easier
• What the £1M, £3M, and £5M revenue ceilings look like in 2026 versus 2022 — and the trap owners walk into at each stage
• Why standing still in 2026 is no longer a safe option — and what a 90-day action mindset actually looks like
⏱️ TIME STAMP
0:00 The Stat That Should Terrify Recruitment Owners
2:15 Is the Great Stabilisation Real — or Just a Media Story?
6:45 Why ‘Hire More Billers’ Has Stopped Working
10:30 The Four Micro-Shifts Hitting Recruitment Simultaneously
18:00 The £1M, £3M and £5M Revenue Ceilings in 2026
24:30 How to Actually Keep Your Top Billers in 2026
31:30 What Recruitment Owners Are Systematically Missing Right Now
38:00 The One Question to Sit With for the Next 90 Days
42:30 Human + AI: Why the Human Element Matters More Than Ever
🎯 READY TO SCALE YOUR RECRUITMENT BUSINESS?
Book your free 60-minute strategy session with Jump Advisory Group — no pitch, just an honest conversation about where your business is and what’s holding it back.
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