"I have always been sceptical about locuming, and not having the security of a permanent role - however I hear that it is lucrative - Is this true?"
Amy Bullock says:
"Our clients are increasingly leaning more towards recruiting on a temporary or locum basis down to both economic and political uncertainty. Due to this within some disciplines temporary roles are much more lucrative than the equivalent permanent opportunities currently available. They also provide a much faster income stream as the turnaround times of the recruitment process are much quicker to meet the immediate needs of the client.
Over the course of the last twelve months a number of key areas have emerged, demanding experienced local authority specialist lawyers including childcare, adult care and employment. These new trends have led to expert lawyers within these areas becoming the highest paid legal locum professionals in the market, earning up to £50 per hour. These lucrative hourly rates mean that there has been an increase in lawyers that are keen to work in these areas.
Additionally, temporary work is often a preferable career choice for a number of jobseekers as it offers a range of benefits, and it is no longer seen as inferior when compared to permanent positions.
As well as providing the opportunity to control your work life balance, with a high degree of flexibility, it can open up a diverse range of opportunities with varying challenges and within different environments – enhancing your CV as new experience is gained.
Locum work is a channel for networking, as well as a reputation building exercise and can therefore often lead to further guaranteed work. It can regularly lead to an extended position, either on a contract or permanent basis – with approximately 75 per cent of contractors securing further work. Additionally accepting a locum role provides you with the opportunity to experience working somewhere before making the decision to accept a permanent role.
To ensure that you are able to secure continued locum work you need to remember that the expectations of an employer are no different than if you were employed on a permanent basis. You need to work hard, complete your tasks, remain focused and learn as much as you can from the role to help widen your skill base for the future."
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Emma Khanna says:
"Locum roles tend to be ongoing positions, so can actually turn out to be fairly long-term (e.g. often a year plus). When you work out what the equivalent annual salary is to an hourly rate that you would be paid as a locum, it is almost certainly always higher than what you would be paid as a permanent employee in that post in local government."
