REC comments on Kemi Badenoch support for the flexible labour market - REC

Responding to the Conservative party's New Economic Revolution and its support for flexible labour markets to restore businesses’ confidence to hire, Shazia Ejaz, Director of Campaigns at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), said:

“Flexible work is a powerful economic growth lever that is absolutely worth backing. And it requires politicians prioritising pragmatic regulation that allows businesses’ the freedom to hire and invest in line with the needs of their sector and the economic cycle. This is crucial for both employers and workers, given that up to 870,000 people are engaged in temporary or contract work on any given day. Greater cross parliamentary support for exempting agencies from guaranteed-hours rules will help firms manage economic uncertainty, ensuring they can draw on temporary workers when demand requires it and allow many more people to participate in the labour market than otherwise would.”

Notes to editors

1.     Recruitment sector contributes more than £40 billion a year to the UK economy despite tough job market, REC, December 2025. The report estimates that on any given day in 2024, 872,000 temporary or contract workers were on assignment. The average length of assignment for temporary workers among respondents was 18 weeks in 2024.