Some property statisrtics are lagging indicators, some are leading indicators — and signs of expansion by recruitment agencies is a leading indicator. Why? Because more recruitment consultants means more jobs which means more floorspace required, eventually.

Data from commercial agency KWB shows that the ever-volatile recruitment sector accounted for 21K SF of take-up in the first quarter, representing 14% of the entire city centre office market by floorspace. This compares with a modest 5% of take-up attributable to recruitment consultants throughout 2017.

New arrivals included Angela Mortimer plc — a London-based company that also operates under the Katie Bard and AM Legal brands — which acquired 8.5K SF at the Countin House in the Jewellery Quarter; and People Plus, which took 6.3K SF at Edmund House in the city centre. Other deals included the expansion of global executive search company Odgers Berndtson in Brindleyplace.

“The health of the recruitment agency sector is regarded as a good economic indicator," KWB Office Agency Director Mark Robinson said. "A strong rate of office space transactions for — the recruitment sector indicates that these businesses are looking positively to the future, so when these transaction numbers are up, so tends to be the demand for new staff among businesses and the levels of actual recruitment within Birmingham and the wider area.”