Recruitment of permanent staff stopped falling in July for the first time in nearly four years, according to the report on jobs from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG, published on Monday. The survey’s index of permanent staff placements reached 50 points, the level that separates growth from contraction. “Remarkably, this is the first month without a decline in permanent placements since Liz Truss resigned as prime minister in 2022, underlining just how prolonged the downturn in permanent hiring has been.” Permanent placements continued to decline in the north of England. As recently as December, the same survey showed permanent and temporary hiring both falling, with permanent placements at a four-month low.