What December’s slowdown means for hiring and candidate experience
Lamplighter Candidate Marketplace is a regular snapshot of the UK hiring landscape. We look at labour market signals and apply candidate experience insight to help organisations understand how their hiring processes may need to adapt.
Rather than predicting outcomes, this series focuses on how the market feels right now, how candidate and business behaviour is shifting and what that means for organisations trying to attract and retain talent.
Where the candidate market closed in December 2025
As 2025 came to an end, hiring activity had considerably slowed. Reporting from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation highlighted a decline in jobs and hiring activity toward the end of the year, driven by weakening employer confidence and rising cost pressures.
Permanent hiring was particularly affected, with organisations becoming more cautious and selective when approving new roles.
Temp placements were down for a second month but temp pay showed some modest growth against previous months.
Starting salaries saw some uptick, but remained behind historical averages.
In summary, employers continued to hire but with greater scrutiny and longer decision cycles; January will inherit this context.
The wider labour market backdrop
This caution aligns with broader signals from the Office for National Statistics, which continue to show vacancy levels below the highs seen in previous years. While employment remains relatively stable, the market no longer has the momentum that characterised earlier post-pandemic hiring.
Together, these signals point to a hiring environment shaped less by growth and more by restraint, typically resulting in:
- Fewer speculative roles
- More internal approval layers
- Greater pressure to “get it right”
Candidate behaviour will shift but motivations remain varied
In slower hiring markets, candidate behaviour tends to show subtle changes:
- Applying to fewer roles
- Spending more time researching employers before engaging; requiring a high level of confidence vs their current, stable position
- Dropping out earlier/easier when processes feel unclear, impersonal or at odds with external recruitment marketing
Recent insights from Indeed reinforce that what candidates want from work remains multidimensional. While pay remains most important, several non-pay factors were chosen by roughly a quarter to a third of UK jobseekers:
- Better benefits (39%)
- Better growth opportunities (33%)
- A role aligned with interests or values (32%)
- A more stimulating role (32%)
- Better company culture (29%)
- More flexibility to work from home (27%)
- Better work-life balance (26%)
Employers that, despite the internal constraints, are able to adapt and address these needs will be better positioned to attract and retain the best talent as the market adjusts.
Recruitment process watchpoints for today’s marketplace
As hiring slows and decision cycles lengthen, recruitment marketing and candidate experience play a more critical role. Weak internal processes or capability become more visible, more costly and more consequential. Below are three priority actions for delivering a candidate experience aligned with current market expectations:
Replace speed with clarity
When timelines are extended internally, candidates value certainty over pace. A lack of clarity is increasingly interpreted as indecision or disorganisation which spooks candidates who judge the grass not to be greener.
You should: Define and communicate clear next steps, ownership, and realistic timelines for candidates at each stage, including when there is no update to share.
Remove friction from the candidate journey
With candidates applying more selectively and often needing stronger reasons to leave stable roles, any unnecessary friction leads to early disengagement and dropoff. Long forms, duplicated interviews, or unclear decision stages disproportionately reduce conversion in restrained markets.
You should: map the end-to-end candidate journey with hiring managers and identify, using data, where candidates commonly pause or drop out. Then simplify or remove non-essential steps.
Align recruitment messaging with lived experience
As candidates research employers more deeply, credibility will play a big part in their decision to apply. Misalignment between attraction messaging and demonstrable experience damages trust faster in restrained markets.
You should: review any upcoming external recruitment messaging and storytelling and ensure this is a true representation of reality. Once in process, candidates lived experience should match what they were told to expect.
Summary
In the current market, recruitment marketing should focus less on visibility and more on alignment with candidate expectations. Organisations that prioritise clarity, reduce friction, and align messaging with experience are better positioned to attract and retain talent.
Lamplighter Digital offers a free, no-commitment External Candidate Experience Review to help identify opportunities to improve candidate engagement and reduce drop-off.
To arrange a review, contact steven@lamplighterdigital.co.uk
