2025 Salary Survey: temps market trends

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Tough economic times have certainly had an impact on the number of permanent hires that charities have been able to make this year, but what about temporary and interim positions?

Here's what our Temps specialists had to say about the trends they're seeing in the market, in our 2025 Salary Survey.

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​It says everything about the current market that this is the only one of our specialist areas to have seen more jobs this year than last — in fact the highest proportion (relative to permanent roles) for many years.

Much of that increase has come from finance departments, seeking additional help to ensure their organisations are financially robust, while we’ve also seen more openings in HR, particularly related to restructuring, where it can make more sense to hire a term-limited contractor than someone who’ll need to have a difficult conversation with themselves once their work is done.

In many other cases however, the rise in temporary roles simply reflects the growing number of organisations in too precarious a position to offer anything more permanent.

Fortunately for those organisations, whether by choice or as a result of redundancies within the sector, there’s been a similar rise in the number of candidates looking for temporary work, although it’s fair to say that not all are equally suited to it.

As such, much of the help we’re currently providing is less around seeking out potential candidates than saving clients from spending countless days sorting through them.

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Candidate availability very much depends on the role however, and perhaps the most challenging to find in the past year have been those with events experience. This is likely to be at least partly a hangover from the Covid-19 pandemic, when gatherings of any kind were off the table for some time, forcing events professionals into other fields, where many have since remained.

Meanwhile, if other vacancies are proving challenging to fill, it’s generally due to the rates. Salaries for temp positions essentially track their permanent equivalents, and while they haven’t increased enormously (even over a decade), they have changed, so those organisations whose temp rates haven’t moved with the times face a long wait for candidates, drawn from a much more limited pool.

However a strong point in favour of the charity sector for temps is that hybrid working (typically two days per week on site) is still very much the norm, with little sign of the push back towards the office that’s happening elsewhere.

And among temp employers at least, it’s been encouraging to see a consistent rise in requests for candidate details to be anonymised (to reduce the potential for bias), reflecting greater consideration for inclusivity in their recruitment process.

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​Temp rates conversion tool

​Rates for temporary roles are simply the hourly equivalent of what the role would pay as a permanent salary, so they move in line with those.

If permanent salaries are what you're used to however, it's not always easy to tell how generous or otherwise an hourly rate is at first glance. So to save you whipping out the calculator every time, our table shows what a range of hourly rates equate to as an annual salary, along with the equivalent weekly and day rates.

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- For a 37.5-hour week, multiply the day, week or annual figure by 1.071

​* The national living wage for age 21+, as set by the UK Government.

** The real living wage needed in the UK, as calculated by the Living Wage Foundation

*** The real living wage needed in London (Living Wage Foundation)​

For more on the market, or if you'd like our help with a temporary or short term recruitment need, please contact our temps specialists Ryan Elmer, Sekai Lindsay or Hannah Gibson who'll be happy to help.

Meanwhile you can find all the figures for all departments in the full 2025 Salary Survey here, or for any other queries, you can also contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk

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