by Rosa Rolo, Managing Director of Major Players
In our last update, we highlighted that confidence was quietly re-entering the market after a few years of caution. That's continued into the first half of this year - but not every part of the market is moving at the same pace, and this quarter's picture is one of real, but uneven, progress.
Permanent hiring has been climbing all year - and the pace picked up again last quarter. Intent to hire has shifted into more commitment, up 20% quarter on quarter- employers are acting on briefs faster and seeing them through to offer, rather than stalling mid-process. This is a positive sign for the wider UK economy too: vacancies nationally have just hit their lowest level since 2021, but the Creative Industries tend to be an early marker for where the broader market follows.
What's notable this time is that on the whole the market hasn't paused to wait and see. Previous periods of geopolitical or political uncertainty have typically put hiring on hold while businesses hold their nerve - but this momentum has continued through both ongoing tension in the Middle East and a change in political leadership at home following Keir Starmer's resignation in June.
Some of the larger network agencies are still working through redundancy plans and restructuring - earlier in the year, 19% said they expect to make further redundancies and 32% are planning a restructure, more than double the rate at independent agencies and brands. Network agencies are nearly twice as likely as brands to say they've prioritised only business-critical hiring (58% vs. 29%). Independent agencies and brand-side teams are, on the whole, hiring with more confidence: only 3% of network agencies feel more confident in their hiring strategy since the latest budget, against 14% of brands.
Freelance, however, tells a more complicated story. Freelance hiring has cooled slightly, although the pace of decline has started to ease. This looks less like fading demand, and more like the tail end of two years of employers pulling back on freelance spend during a period of wider restructuring. This is being acutely felt in our community, RUVO, where 40% have said it’s felt quieter. That being said, underlying appetite to hire freelancers is still very much there – 45% of business respondents in this year’s Census told us they expect to hire freelance talent in the next six months, and we'd expect that appetite to sharpen further as the year goes on. Ongoing changes to employment laws are likely to make freelance and interim hiring more appealing for businesses who want the flexibility to scale up or down quickly.
One of the biggest shifts this quarter is one many businesses haven't caught up with yet: this isn't the candidate-rich market it's still widely assumed to be. Our Census highlighted that talent mobility jumped from 22% in 2024 to 34% in 2025, and 55% now plan to move roles in the next 6–12 months – the highest we've ever recorded. It's what we've called 'The Great Unrest': two years of economic uncertainty that kept people holding onto their roles rather than risk a move, and a pent-up restlessness that's now starting to break - with far more people open to, and actively looking for, something new.
This shift is already showing up in the hiring process, and we’re seeing more candidates fielding multiple offers, particularly where in-demand skills are scarce. It's an early but clear sign of movement back toward a more candidate-led market - one likely to reward businesses that move decisively and pay competitively over those still working to the old playbook.
We're seeing demand across a consistent set of roles: content creators, especially those who specialise in YouTube, Reddit and TikTok; brand specialists and creative performance strategists across D2C brands; and, notably, media continues to outperform creative in hiring across most disciplines.
Craft and taste are still fundamentally and undeniably important, but the creatives in demand are the ones who've paired it with strong AI fluency - unsurprising given that 70% of businesses now rank AI/technical proficiency as the single most important skill for the future of their workforce.
Finally, client services professionals and marketers with a strong track record of demonstrating ROI, particularly in consumer and scaling tech-focused businesses, remain consistently sought after.
As momentum continues to build and more people start to move roles, planning is vital - businesses that get their offer right, and act on it early, are the ones best placed to benefit. At Major Players, we help brands and agencies stay ahead of that shift with the market insight, and the specialist talent, to move quickly when it counts. If you'd like to discuss any of this, we'd love to hear from you at talk@majorplayers.co.uk.
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