The Slow Death of Contingent Recruitment: Simon Lewis on Communities, Collaboration & 2026

About this episode

Simon Lewis discusses the impending changes in the recruitment industry and the decline of traditional contingent recruitment.

In the final episode of 2025, Louise sits down with RecConnect founder Simon Lewis to unpack what’s really coming for the recruitment industry in 2026 and why traditional contingent perm is on a slow, silent death march. Simon shares his unconventional journey from Sunday Times journalist to IT recruiter, to job board owner, to community builder for recruitment leaders. Drawing on conversations with hundreds of agency owners and economists, he explains why this moment is the most radical shif...

People in this episode

Host: Louise

Guest: Simon Lewis

Topics covered

• recruitment industry
• contingent recruitment
• community building
• collaboration
• future of work

Keywords

• recruitment
• Simon Lewis
• contingent recruitment
• community
• 2026
• agency owners
• economists

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: RecConnect

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