Supply Chain, Procurement and Vendor Management Recruitment Bulletin October 2025
THE PROCUREMENT JOBS MARKET has remained inconsistent and somewhat unpredictable throughout 2025. Periods of strong activity have often been followed by quieter spells, reflecting continued uncertainty around business confidence and investment sentiment. Many organisations are deferring major projects, freezing recruitment, or delaying hiring for non-essential roles.
ON A POSITIVE NOTE, since July we’ve seen a noticeable uplift in overall recruitment activity — initially across interim roles and more recently in permanent positions.
According to the latest ONS data (October 2025), total UK job vacancies fell by 9,000 (1.3%) in the three months to September, marking the 39th consecutive quarterly decline. Vacancies fell in 9 of 18 sectors, underscoring a generally cooling labour market. However, procurement has held up better than many other sectors, with steady hiring demand across key categories. In procurement specifically, overall demand across interim and permanent markets was slow and uneven during the first half of 2025; but has strengthened moderately since July.
Encouragingly, the summer brought an uptick in Procurement Job activity — particularly at Senior Category Manager, Head of Category, and Head of Procurement levels, possibly reflecting procurement’s growing strategic importance in managing risk, driving efficiency, and strengthening business resilience.
TALENT SHORTAGES continue to be a major challenge. Even when organisations want to hire, 59% of employers report struggling to find suitable candidates (CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025). As a result, many roles remain unfilled or are only partially backfilled, contributing to an uneven supply-demand picture.
ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY continues to lengthen recruitment cycles, increasing the risk of losing in-demand specialists. Yet, optimism remains — 58% of employers still expect to expand their procurement teams over the next 12 months (CIPS 2025).
~ SEE MORE ~ Supply Chain, Procurement and Vendor Management Recruitment Bulletin October 2025 Presentation
Further Challenges for Procurement Professionals and Employers…
2025-26 PREDICTIONS…
According to the latest ONS data (October 2025), total UK job vacancies fell by 9,000 (1.3%) in the three months to September, marking the 39th consecutive quarterly decline. Vacancies fell in 9 of 18 sectors, underscoring a generally cooling labour market. However, procurement has held up better than many other sectors, with steady hiring demand across key categories. In procurement specifically, overall demand across interim and permanent markets was slow and uneven during the first half of 2025; but has strengthened moderately since July.
Encouragingly, the summer brought an uptick in Procurement Job activity — particularly at Senior Category Manager, Head of Category, and Head of Procurement levels, possibly reflecting procurement’s growing strategic importance in managing risk, driving efficiency, and strengthening business resilience.
TALENT SHORTAGES continue to be a major challenge. Even when organisations want to hire, 59% of employers report struggling to find suitable candidates (CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025). As a result, many roles remain unfilled or are only partially backfilled, contributing to an uneven supply-demand picture.
ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY continues to lengthen recruitment cycles, increasing the risk of losing in-demand specialists. Yet, optimism remains — 58% of employers still expect to expand their procurement teams over the next 12 months (CIPS 2025).
~ SEE MORE ~ Supply Chain, Procurement and Vendor Management Recruitment Bulletin October 2025 Presentation
Further Challenges for Procurement Professionals and Employers…
- Continued DICHOTOMY between organisations demanding their staff ‘back in the office’ and candidates wanting flexible hybrid working options + continued salary/package misalignment.
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ENTRY LEVEL and JUNIOR market is very quiet with some good people looking for their first career move; suggesting that some organisation are holding back on employing some junior tactical procurement people in favour of AI capital investment.
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Overall WAGE RATES for procurement professionals rose by 5.75% in 2025 (Source: CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025), slightly ahead of average UK wage growth of 5% (source ONS)
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Increased demand for AI PROCUREMENT SKILLS, nearly all interviews will now have several questions around AI.
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Some VERY specific ‘hard to find’ TECHNICAL or CATEGORY SKILL SETS can secure salary, and package increases well ahead of market rates. Salary alignment challenges and scarcity of qualified professionals remain. Up-to-the-minute technology and analysis/AI skills as ever in strong demand.
STRONG DEMAND from
- FINTECH ~ Driven by changing global trading relationships, technology investment and movement from traditional high street banking to on-line and new financial services/banking products. Roles primarily London based
- RENEWABLE ENERGY AND UTILITIES ~ In particular, the Water sector ~ investment in environmental /pollution solutions and in the Energy sector ~ working towards net zero, minimizing UK energy vulnerability ~ Roles UK wide
- LIFE SCIENCES AND BIOTEC ~ Roles UK wide, Cambridge, Oxford
- LOGISTICS ~ Roles UK wide
- DEFENCE ~ Roles UK wide
2025-26 PREDICTIONS…
PERMANENT: We expect job activity to remain steady, possibly strengthening if the UK economic conditions and the geopolitical environment improves and stabilises. Certain sectors (see previous page) will be busy; and procurement professionals with strategic and technical skills will remain in strong demand, but overall, we foresee a gentle uptick. We expect salary growth will continue as is, slightly ahead of UK averages.
INTERIM: If continued geopolitical and economic uncertainty and high recruitment costs persist, we expect to see many employers looking to more flexible staffing solutions ~ engagements on FTC or Day Rates. The competition for exceptional specialist interim talent, may push up interim rates a little bit further, but are likely to slow as more ‘flexible’ permanent to interim candidates become available.
STRATEGIC v TACTICAL: Strong demand for procurement professionals with ‘strategic’ over tactical / transactional skills. As increased employment costs make automation and AI solutions more attractive to many employers, we are seeing a reduction in opportunities for junior and solely cost-focused ‘tactical’ candidates. There will be strong demand for procurement professionals that possess up-to-the minute technical/AI skills, strong stakeholder engagement/management, business partnering, and value creation abilities, in conjunction with strong subject matter expertise.
EXPERTISE OVER LINKEDIN TRAWL: As global markets continue to be shaped by economic uncertainty, Procurement and Supply Chain Management have become more vital than ever to business resilience and performance. Increasingly, organisations are moving away from LinkedIn searches, job boards, and other generic recruitment channels — instead turning to specialist procurement talent partners to secure top procurement professionals. Time and again, we see that traditional internal recruitment teams and MSPs often lack the deep networks, market insight, and sector expertise required to identify and engage leading procurement talent — especially those not actively seeking new opportunities ~ SEE MORE HERE
INTERIM: If continued geopolitical and economic uncertainty and high recruitment costs persist, we expect to see many employers looking to more flexible staffing solutions ~ engagements on FTC or Day Rates. The competition for exceptional specialist interim talent, may push up interim rates a little bit further, but are likely to slow as more ‘flexible’ permanent to interim candidates become available.
STRATEGIC v TACTICAL: Strong demand for procurement professionals with ‘strategic’ over tactical / transactional skills. As increased employment costs make automation and AI solutions more attractive to many employers, we are seeing a reduction in opportunities for junior and solely cost-focused ‘tactical’ candidates. There will be strong demand for procurement professionals that possess up-to-the minute technical/AI skills, strong stakeholder engagement/management, business partnering, and value creation abilities, in conjunction with strong subject matter expertise.
EXPERTISE OVER LINKEDIN TRAWL: As global markets continue to be shaped by economic uncertainty, Procurement and Supply Chain Management have become more vital than ever to business resilience and performance. Increasingly, organisations are moving away from LinkedIn searches, job boards, and other generic recruitment channels — instead turning to specialist procurement talent partners to secure top procurement professionals. Time and again, we see that traditional internal recruitment teams and MSPs often lack the deep networks, market insight, and sector expertise required to identify and engage leading procurement talent — especially those not actively seeking new opportunities ~ SEE MORE HERE
“ In today’s competitive market, partnering with a specialist isn’t just an advantage….
….. it’s essential to securing the talent that drives long-term value and supply chain resilience. “