Public Sector

18-Feb-2009 | By Colin Cottell

Public sector recruitment remains relatively strong, with the Monster Employment Index for January showing a 5% year-on-year increase. However, there are indications that the tide could be turning as public finances come under increasing pressure over the next few years.

Online opportunities in the public, defence and community sector dipped five points in January, the second consecutive month of decline. Yet this has to be seen in context. The Monster Employment Index overall decreased by 30 points in January, the third consecutive monthly fall. Year-on-year the index was down 49 points.

Hugo Sellert, head of economic research at Monster Worldwide, told Recruiter that despite the deepening recession some bright spots remained. “Demand remains strong for healthcare, education and other public sector workers as government programmes work to offset private sector job losses.”

Jane Atherton, joint managing director of Huntress’s commercial division, told Recruiter she had noticed a slowdown in public sector hiring, particularly for clerical and admin staff. While the situation is “not dire”, she expected it to spread into other areas of the public sector.

Some recruiters have noticed an increase in private sector candidates looking for the greater job security offered by the public sector. This has lead to greater competition for jobs, said Sara Lister, director Michael Page Legal.

John Marsh, managing director of board and senior level recruiter Robinson Keane, said he had seen a trend for more public sector bodies to take on people from the private sector.

Graeme Ratten, publisher of Opportunities and opportunities.co.uk which focuses on local government, told Recruiter that the cumulative volume of job advertisements in the magazine was 30% down on a year ago.

That said, after a particularly weak October and November due to local authority hiring freezes, things picked up in December — better than December 2007. However, Ratten said that unlike the usual wide variety of vacancies, 80% of the jobs advertised were in social care. He said this had been caused by the bad publicity surrounding Baby P, which has put people off social work.

“It not all doom and gloom,” he added. “Once there has been a genuine reduction in recruitment, local authorities will have to recruit people.”

Chris O’Connell, managing director of Timothy James Consulting, told Recruiter that over the past five years the public sector has been “the market to be in” due to major investment in change programmes, particularly in IT projects.

And he predicted that even the expected squeeze on the public finances in the next few years, will not put a dampener on the market. “It will generate more opportunities for contractors on short-term assignments,” he said.

Lister said that some clients had imposed recruitment freezes. However, this does not mean employers are not replacing staff, but that recruitment has been delayed. There were also opportunities in education for candidates with the right experience, she added. Areas of hiring weakness included charities and not for profit.

Dean Kelly, chief executive of social care and education recruiter Synarbor, said that demand for social workers was particularly strong. This was the case in local authorities that have been identified as failing, such as Haringey, Birmingham and Doncaster, which find it difficult to attract permanent staff. Kelly added he had seen a 10-15% increase in the hourly rate paid to social workers in those authorities.

Paul Sykes, regional director of Michael Page Marketing, told Recruiter he had seen a “buoyant flow of new briefs across a diverse range of public sector clients”. There are more interim and senior management jobs, particularly within the NHS, while the regions have been particularly strong due to public sector bodies moving away from London, said Sykes.

So while recruitment in the public sector remains relatively healthy, the picture is not as universally rosy as before.