W&A 2025

 11th Dec 2025

2025 is finishing just as fast as it began, and I know myself and the W&A team are looking forward to a bit of a rest over the Christmas period. I hope you are too. We’ve taken a moment to look back at the numbers that defined our year - the roles we’ve supported, the partnerships we’ve strengthened, and the growth we’ve seen across the accountancy and finance market:

For those of you who watched the Ryder Cup and were supporting Europe, it was a pretty good analogy for a year in recruitment. It all started well, some good recruitment activity early in the year and excitement levels high. The scoreboard was blue, optimism aplenty, before abruptly turning increasingly red just before summer, when recruitment activity began tailing off earlier than usual. Nevertheless, we got there in the end, a strong team effort, a European victory, lots to celebrate for us, but it was not without some anxious moments.

As you will possibly know, at W&A we specialise in recruiting within accountancy and finance disciplines primarily, so worth noting that the trends discussed are seen primarily through the eyes of our specific market, nevertheless, I am sure there will be some common themes across other disciplines too.

So, what have we noticed:

Jobs market – a tough year with a drop in the number of roles overall available would be a fair conclusion. Most organisations have still been recruiting, but without some economic certainty, we have found that when hiring caution has often won out over action and there have definitely been less hiring activity with the bigger businesses, less utilisation of interims than perhaps in years gone by and this in part has been triggered by caution from people moving too, meaning the recruitment cycle slows overall. Every bit of movement in theory creating another opportunity, or in this case, not. Roles are beginning to change content, finance functions evolving, automation embedding and the much talked of AI revolution often creating as much noise, confusion and indecision as it does impact as businesses and leaders navigate this complex topic. Things like FP&A, business intelligence, data and MI and finance systems becoming ever more prominent, leadership of thought and people crucial, and communication skills, innovation and stakeholder engagement key. There are some really positive themes here and much to look forward to, with quantity of roles available, the piece slightly lacking, for now.

Jobseekers – an interesting year for candidates, challenging for many, with a reduced volume of roles and higher competition for them. Searching can be disheartening as a result, but importantly, don’t give up. For some, it has definitely been slightly easier, those with clear vision on what they are looking for, what differentiates them in terms of experience gained, skill sets and who are able to articulate this are helping control their narrative, and at W&A, we remain firm believers in working with our candidates to help them with this. Control the controllables, focus your search, be flexible and innovate. Thinking ahead, what are finance functions becoming, what skill sets might be in demand and invest in yourself through professional development to ensure you are ready.

Organisations - The landscape in Scotland, where most of our experience has been, still has incredible diversity in what is a relatively small geography. There are lots of superb businesses out there, some visible, others less so, leading the way in their fields, innovating, disrupting and some others who are more ‘traditional’ delivering quality and excellence in terms of products and services. Plenty with lots more potential too ,and it was fantastic to see some of Scotland’s business leaders launch some fantastic initiatives with particular focus on the scale-up community, outlining suggestions to help address the topics of funding, talent, business capability and market expansion. It was great to be a small part of this as they gathered thoughts from across the Scottish business community. The passion for this is inspiring, stability might inspire confidence, which would undoubtedly help some move from inaction to action, but also the importance of being brave, setting clear goals and the importance of maintaining good cultures and high energy levels. Good people make good businesses. Our job is to find them.

Why? I wish I had all the answers here, but one of the lovely things about my role is being out speaking with so many different people and businesses to get different perspectives. A few themes here, but in the main, it is a combination of many of these factors below that shape and drive the trends mentioned above:

• AI – a vast topic, too much to cover here. Companies and leaders are generally embracing this and seeing it creep/charge into everyday use,  increasingly losing its ‘fear’ factor, with many realising the various benefits it can bring. One thing for sure is that it’s here to stay.
• Continued geo-political stability – relative stability in the UK, the anticipated budget playing its part in delaying some decision making in Q3/Q4, global tariffs, and the Russia/Ukraine, Middle East instability all continue to feature here
• Corporate Activity – takeovers, shifting geographies, in-sourcing and outsourcing, all of which can affect roles, organisational structures and roles
• Automation – AI, systems and processes all embedding to replace some of the more routine roles, the emphasis shifting to adding value in roles. The shape of the workforce will undoubtedly reshape over years ahead.
• Workplace flexibility - some shifts in pattern with more organisations moving towards models with enhanced office presence, meaning some imbalance between the needs and wants of employees vs employers
• Remunerations – generally, this year we have seen less of an increase in remunerations, a slowing in inflation rates being part of this and a lot of businesses seeing an overall rise in costs this year too
• Funding & Deal activity  – still some challenges for businesses here, with some citing an imbalance between funding available and willing to be deployed, and it would seem that, on average, things are just taking longer when it comes to doing deals
• Data – the value in this space is at the heart of many business strategies, recognising how best to capture and utilise data, shaping decision making and teams accordingly

And to the year ahead. Buoyed by a recent performance over Denmark in qualifying, the nation has its first football World Cup in 28 years to look forward to. Whilst not directing impacting business activity and recruitment, optimism and excitement will I am sure play its small part in next years outlook. Not to mention a few sick days affecting productivity on the days after the late matches! At this point, I would anticipate a year not totally dissimilar to 2025 in recruitment activity levels. Many of the why factors are not necessarily going to dissipate rapidly.

However, amongst some recent survey I have noted that on average, business leaders are more optimistic about next year which is positive, this is a good thing for recruitment, growth, stability and confidence tend to lead to hiring, and I tend to find that after a lull or slower period, organisations and leaders tend to have a threshold of how long they might be willing to wait to see what happens, seizing control and driving forward again. It feels like that threshold is close for many. Meanwhile, new companies and ideas emerge and underpinning this, people will always keep moving, sometimes for progression, sometimes just a change, but that will ensure there will always be some degree of movement in recruitment terms.

Last, but by no means, thanks to all of you that we have worked with this year. To my team, and to all our customers. Strong relationships built on trust, professionalism and putting people first remain a cornerstone of our business and the partnerships we build. We look forward to 2026 with cautious optimism and would love to hear from you at some stage and to swap stories. In the meantime, we wish you a Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2026.