Black Country recruitment firm offers jobseekers hope on 'the saddest day of 2026'
A Walsall-based jobs agency is today offering jobseekers hope on the “saddest day of 2026” as it reports its best-ever calendar year for landing people into work.
January 19 is “Blue Monday 2026,” the third Monday of January and the day commonly acknowledged as the most financially, emotionally and physically challenging.
“Today is the saddest day of 2026 for many different reasons, and if you’re out of work it’s likely to be even tougher,” said Professor Paul Cadman, CEO of Starting Point Recruitment (SPR), which has offices in Walsall and Birmingham.
“But I’m happy to offer some Blue Monday hope to jobseekers because today we are reporting that in 2025 we placed more people in jobs than in any year since our inception in 2002. We got 1,093 people into work - 50% more than in 2024.”
Two examples of jobseekers who last year found work after long and bruising job-hunts were Megan Naish, 37, from Walsall, and Aundray Gow, 22, from Willenhall.
Aundray, who now works as a sale assistant at Foot Asylum, said: “I joined the Restart programme with SPR and they got me into Foot Asylum. It’s great to be working. I can feel my confidence rebuilding.”
Megan, who SPR helped secure a retail role at Heron Foods after 10 months and 300 fruitless applications, said: “My confidence is growing all the time and I’m so happy. I feel validated.”
SPR is also reporting its best-ever Q3 (third quarter of the financial year), having placed 322 people into work in the three months to the end of December 2025 - 59% more than the same period in 2024.
These record numbers for SPR come against a backdrop of a bleak UK jobs market, which makes Blue Monday bluer still for people out of work.
The latest monthly ONS (Office for National Statistics) jobs data, being published tomorrow (Tues Jan 20th), is expected to follow the same downward trend as the previous 18 months.
In December the ONS said the national unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage points to 5.1% in in three months to November, with the West Midlands’ joblessness rate of 5.9% the worst of any region outside London.
Prof Cadman added: “In every month of 2025 we bucked the bleak national trend of fewer overall job vacancies with more people competing for them. We did this by deploying our simple strategy: looking at the person, not just the CV that summarises them.
“In the past year, we’ve supported 1,093 people with their confidence and self-esteem. Their experiences show that there is still hope, even on days like Blue Monday.”
The West Midlands’ employment rate, indicating the proportion of working-age people in work, for the three months to the end of October is 73.6%, below the national rate of 74.9%.
Estimates for payrolled employees in the UK fell by 149,000 (0.5%) between October 2024 and October 2025, the ONS report said.
The ONS report for the three months to the end of October said the highest employment rate in the UK was in the Southwest (79.0%), while the lowest was in the Northeast (70.5%).
Please note: If you are really struggling, ask for help. Organisations like Mind, Lifeline or local crisis helplines are there to support you.
