Not necessarily. I know a handful of trainees in from SC/MC firms in this year’s cohort and quite a few accepted offers in teams that are their second choice or as a last resort merely for the sake of avoiding unemployment. They are biding their time until the market picks up.

Nevertheless, there is very little external recruitment. Yes, some results are higher than expected, but quite a lot of MC/SC firms are on a hiring freeze in respect of the junior end. Other firms are also in similar positions.

My firm created extra roles to boost retention rates and because they wanted to do the best they could to retain as many, but are no where near to 80% retention.

Think of it like this, if all trainees applied internally and only a percentage were offered the roles, with all places now being filled then there is no need to recruit externally. This is where we are in terms of the market. Rates are high but there is little to offer externally, because there is an oversupply of trainees in comparison to roles available.

But surely the internal and external NQ markets are correlated? Or is there a reason for high retention rates and poor external NQ market

They did say that they would do that in their comment… what exactly is your point?

Huh? Have we read the same comment? They are literally saying that: best to take the job at hand than to go on empty, but if you end in a bad situation, the doldrums can currently last for quite some time before the market recovers.

Work on your reading comprehension skills, little man.

lmao calm down pinhead 🍆🤡

Go to bed.

You would have done the same as those that accepted a role in a practice of no choice. You forgetting that those people have rent/mortgage to pay, need to eat and more. We don’t know how long this situation will last but here you are giving lessons of life to people.

Again, go to bed.

But it is in a way – if you’re not retained or are not offered the role you wanted, the market for other NQ positions is glacial, if not completely nonexistent.

It is commendable that firms are trying to hold on to as many of their trainees qualifying into NQs but the real question is how many of those 24 candidates that accepted roles with their firm did so because they wanted to rather than because they knew the alternative was a potentially long spell without a job (which is lethal for anyone starting out in London).

Anecdotally even strong candidates with a few years’ PQE are really struggling to bag a job if they found themselves laid off. My recommendation to anyone in City law right now is to sit tight, don’t take any risks and hold on to your choad until the market recovers. Now is definitely not the time to be left out in the cold wilderness as you could be there for a long while.