Modern slavery is not an elsewhere problem: evidence suggests its presence in every industry and it has an estimated 50 million victims globally, with at least 100,000 of these being within the UK. It is therefore important that we all have an understanding of modern slavery beyond recognising it as a term we’ve all skimmed past in our employment contracts.

The UK, as well as many other countries globally, is currently experiencing a competitive job market, i.e. one in which there are more candidates seeking employment than there are available roles. The UK market has seen a concurrent rise in available workers and a fall in vacancies. The recently published August 2024 KPMG & REC UK Report on Jobs stated there is a continued decrease in vacancies – this is most marked in permanent job roles, whereas temporary vacancies actually experienced an increase for the second month in a row, so it’s not all bad news.