First permanent placement rise in four months, say REC
30 March 2012
This year started with some good news, as January saw a modest rise in permanent staff appointments following three months of consecutive decline, says Report on Jobs.
Weds, 8 Feb 2012
This year started with some good news, as January saw a modest rise in permanent staff appointments following three months of consecutive decline, says Report on Jobs.
The wider picture remained relatively gloomy, however, with agency billings falling slightly for the second month in a row, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and KMPG’s Report on Jobs, which surveyed 400 REC member recruitment consultancies.Engineering & construction remained the industry with the greatest demand for staff in both permanent and temporary vacancies, with secretarial/clerical demand rising to become the industry with the third-highest hiring demands in both categories, having been seventh (out of eight) for permanent hires this time last, and fifth for temporary/contract staff.
Across both markets, the overall demand for staff was the weakest for 27 months, while pay rose marginally in both cases.
Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, says: “It is a welcome surprise to see a modest increase in the number of permanent job placements across the UK. Perhaps employers are beginning to accept that they need to have the right people in place to kick start the economy?”
REC chief executive Kevin Green says: “Although temporary billings have contracted slightly over recent months, the latest figures show an improvement on December. This confirms that there is still little evidence that the Agency Workers Regulations have had a significant impact on hiring and employers are still making considerable use of flexible working arrangements.”
See recruiter.co.uk’s 3 February article for the conclusions drawn from an ‘AWR: The Aftermath’ summit in London last week.
This year started with some good news, as January saw a modest rise in permanent staff appointments following three months of consecutive decline, says Report on Jobs.
The wider picture remained relatively gloomy, however, with agency billings falling slightly for the second month in a row, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and KMPG’s Report on Jobs, which surveyed 400 REC member recruitment consultancies.Engineering & construction remained the industry with the greatest demand for staff in both permanent and temporary vacancies, with secretarial/clerical demand rising to become the industry with the third-highest hiring demands in both categories, having been seventh (out of eight) for permanent hires this time last, and fifth for temporary/contract staff.
Across both markets, the overall demand for staff was the weakest for 27 months, while pay rose marginally in both cases.
Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, says: “It is a welcome surprise to see a modest increase in the number of permanent job placements across the UK. Perhaps employers are beginning to accept that they need to have the right people in place to kick start the economy?”
REC chief executive Kevin Green says: “Although temporary billings have contracted slightly over recent months, the latest figures show an improvement on December. This confirms that there is still little evidence that the Agency Workers Regulations have had a significant impact on hiring and employers are still making considerable use of flexible working arrangements.”
See recruiter.co.uk’s 3 February article for the conclusions drawn from an ‘AWR: The Aftermath’ summit in London last week.
