Your 60 second guide to indirect tax recruitment in November

And here we are, December already...

As we now enter a shortened month - one that's distracted by Christmas parties, holidays, colleagues out of the office, and a bit of football - the attention towards recruitment begins to waiver and we typically find that December revolves around onboarding and concluding unfinished hiring processes.

November, subsequently, is a transition month. It's a month that can either be extremely busy or rather flat!

Ironically, we felt both experiences at Harvey John . Whilst you'll see that the market has dipped, our indirect tax desk was perhaps the busiest it has been in 8 years with a record number of CVs sent and interviews booked.

What's happening in the in-house market?

• 27% decrease in new in-house roles across the UK&I, BENELUX, and DACH ??
• An equal split of roles at the Analyst / Senior Analyst level & the Manager / Senior Manager level, both accounting for 84% of recorded roles.
• Much of the UK 'analyst' demand has been situated around the Home Counties, which has made these roles particularly challenging to fill as London based candidates are reluctant to travel out of the city for their 'office' days.
• 42% of roles were recorded in the UK&I, followed by the BENELUX region at 26%.
• There continues to be an increasing appetite to hire in-house indirect tax technology professionals, largely at the manager grade.
• The hottest sectors for in-house hiring in October have been:

?? Technology?(20%)

?? Manufacturing & Engineering (14%)

?? Financial Services (12%)

Accountancy & software firms prepare for the New Year rush

Whilst demands remains comparable to what we've seen in 2022, November was a frantic month of completing interviews and pinning down those on a month's notice to start this side of Christmas.

There's a benefit to starting a new job pre-Christmas: ease yourself in with a quieter and broken-up month, familiarise yourself with the team and systems, enjoy some bank holidays and come back fresh for the NY rush! Seemingly, this has been the intention of the accountancy and tax software firms.

Admittedly, much of our focus this month has been on the UK market; it's here where we've been getting the most inbound inquiries from accountancy firms as they gear up to 2023. From what we're seeing, the market is similar across Europe's dominant indirect tax hubs (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Hungary) but it has felt like the UK scene has been the most dominant.

That's all for now... We'll be back in January to report back on what we predict to be a quiet December in the world of indirect tax, though we are very much open to being surprised!