July 20, 2026
The UK vacancy market has been tightening. There were 707,000 vacancies in March to May 2026, down 19,000 on the quarter and 31,000 (4.2%) on the year (source: ONS, Vacancies and jobs in the UK, 2026). When there are fewer roles to fill, the agencies that win are the ones whose candidate communities are warm, current and loyal. Yet most agency databases are full of candidates nobody has spoken to since their last placement, and those candidates are being contacted daily by rival recruiters and public job boards.
UK recruiters operate across both permanent and temporary supply. The Conduct Regulations distinguish employment agencies, which find workers permanent roles with a hirer, from employment businesses, which supply temporary workers under their own engagement (source: GOV.UK, Overview of the Conduct Regulations 2003). The demand side stood at 707,000 vacancies in March to May 2026 (source: ONS, Vacancies and jobs in the UK, 2026), while about 285,000 people were working through agency temping in January to March 2026 (source: ONS, EMP07 Temporary employees, 2026). In a tighter market, the differentiator is a candidate community that stays engaged with your agency between placements.
Spacewalk gives your agency a private, branded job board for your own candidate pool, so the community you spent years building works for you between briefs.
Build your branded Spacewalk job board and invite your talent community in minutes
Whether you choose to stream roles automatically, invite employers or post them yourself they are automatically matched to your talent pool
Track applications, placements and community engagement from one reporting dashboard
Unlike generic job boards, Spacewalk gives you a branded, private or public jobs marketplace your talent actually trust, with sourcing, matching and reporting running automatically in the background.
Candidate data sits under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, with the ICO as regulator, so agencies need a lawful basis for holding candidate records and defensible retention periods for lapsed candidates (source: ICO, UK GDPR guidance and resources).
Sector rules sit alongside. The Conduct Regulations set standards for agencies and employment businesses, including the Key Information Document employment businesses must give temporary work-seekers, and since 7 April 2026 the Fair Work Agency enforces them in Great Britain (source: GOV.UK, Overview of the Conduct Regulations 2003). Right-to-work checks rest with the hiring employer, which faces a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker (source: GOV.UK, Penalties for employing illegal workers). This is context, not legal advice.
This is an illustrative scenario, not a customer story. A UK specialist agency invites its registered candidates to a branded job board. Between briefs, candidates see verified, live roles matched to their skills, so they stay engaged with the agency rather than drifting to public platforms. When a client brief lands, consultants search the pool's recent activity to build a shortlist in hours, and the director exports placement data to track pool health by desk.
Because the roles are curated and employer-direct rather than re-listed from public platforms. Each candidate sees verified, active roles matched to their skills, seniority and location, under your agency's brand.
No. Spacewalk is a branded board and talent pool for your own candidate community, keeping candidates engaged between placements so consultants shortlist faster.
From an employer-direct stream of verified, active roles with direct apply links. Your consultants can also post live briefs, but nothing is scraped from job boards or aggregators.
No. Those obligations stay with the hiring employer and the employment business. Spacewalk connects your candidates to live roles and tracks their progress.
Yes. Application tracking shows who is registering, applying and interviewing, so consultants prioritise warm candidates instead of cold-calling the database.
Yes. Spacewalk offers a 14-day free trial with unlimited admin seats, so a whole desk can test it against a live pool segment.
Spacewalk supports recruitment agencies worldwide, including candidate pool software for US recruitment agencies and branded job boards for Australian recruitment agencies.
Explore Spacewalk for UK interim staff providers, UK talent on demand agencies, UK outplacement services and UK job placement schemes.
