Emerging Trends in Contingent and Temporary Labour for 2025

The workforce landscape is undergoing a huge shift, with contingent and temporary labour playing an increasingly pivotal role in business strategies. By 2025, projections suggest that contingent labour could represent over 40% of the global workforce, driven by economic uncertainty, technological advancements, and evolving worker preferences. For UK businesses, understanding these temporary workforce trends is critical to maintaining agility and competitiveness. Below, we explore the key developments shaping the sector and how VMS insights can help organisations navigate this dynamic environment.  

1. Skills Based Hiring and the Gig Economy Expansion

The rise of skills-based hiring is redefining recruitment, with companies prioritising niche expertise over traditional qualifications. This shift is fuelled by acute skills shortages across sectors like tech, healthcare, and engineering, where 59% of employers struggle to fill permanent roles. Temporary workers now provide a strategic solution, enabling businesses to access specialised talent for project-based needs without long-term commitments.  

Concurrently, the gig economy is transitioning from a supplementary income source to a core workforce component. Platforms like Upwork and Fiverr are becoming central hubs for sourcing freelancers, while VMS insights help businesses streamline contractor management, compliance, and payments.  

2. AI Driven Workforce Management

Artificial intelligence is changing temporary labour recruitment. AI-powered tools automate candidate sourcing, screening, and matching, reducing time-to-hire by analysing skills, predicting performance, and optimising job placements. For example, advanced VMS platforms integrate AI to provide real-time analytics on workforce costs, compliance risks, and productivity, enabling data-driven decision-making.  

However, challenges remain: 40% of employers express concerns about AI’s impersonal nature potentially alienating candidates. Balancing automation with human oversight will be key to maintaining a candidate-centric approach.  

3. Enhanced Worker Experience and Benefits

To attract top contingent talent, businesses are prioritising worker experience. This includes offering portable benefits (healthcare, pensions) that follow freelancers across roles, alongside mental health support and professional development opportunities. Hybrid work models are also becoming non-negotiable, with 46% of professionals rejecting roles lacking flexibility.  

VMS insights further enhance this by centralising communication, tracking engagement, and ensuring timely payments—critical factors in retaining high-performing temporary workers.  

4. Compliance Complexity and Global Talent Pools

Regulatory frameworks are tightening globally, particularly around worker classification, taxation, and cross-border employment. In the UK, reforms like IR35 and the Employment Rights Bill 2024 are pushing businesses to adopt robust compliance strategies, often embedded within VMS platforms to automate documentation and risk assessments.  

Simultaneously, remote work technology is dissolving geographic barriers, enabling companies to build globally distributed teams. However, challenges like currency fluctuations and cultural integration persist, necessitating VMS tools that streamline international payroll and compliance.  

5. Sustainability and ESG Integration

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are reshaping contingent workforce strategies. Companies now evaluate vendors’ carbon footprints, diversity practices, and ethical standards during selection. VMS insights provide transparency into these metrics, helping businesses align temporary workers with broader sustainability goals while meeting investor and consumer expectations.  

To Conclude

The contingent labour trends of 2025 reflect a workforce increasingly defined by flexibility, technology, and social responsibility. For UK businesses, leveraging VMS insights to automate compliance, enhance worker experience, and harness global talent will be indispensable. As temporary labour becomes a cornerstone of workforce strategy, organisations that adapt swiftly will thrive in an era of unprecedented change.