The number of candidates being placed in new travel jobs grew by 25% month-on-month in February, although this is still down 30% on last February.

Meanwhile, vacancies fell by 29% month-on-month and by a third (33%) compared with February last year.

"With job placements rising to their highest level in half a year, February was undoubtedly a positive month,” said C&M managing director Barbara Kolosinska.

"But for this momentum to continue, we need to see consistent increases in the number of new travel jobs being made available, and unfortunately that wasn’t the case in February.”

The number of new vacancies nonetheless rose to their third-highest level in the past six months in February, while February candidate numbers hit their second-highest level in the past seven years.

Meanwhile, the number of new jobseekers came in 16% behind February 2023 and was on par with January 2024 despite being a slightly shorter month.

“There remains lots of great new opportunities out there for the right candidates, but we’ll be watching closely to see how busy the market gets in the coming months,” Kolosinska added.