Technical recruiter Morson says it continues to encounter “challenging” trading conditions, according to an update ahead of preliminary results for the year ended 31 December.

The update says: “Trading through the latter part of 2010, and since the year end, has remained challenging. Whilst trading in civil aerospace, nuclear, power and rail has remained relatively stable, our activity in the defence sector has been impacted by the implications of the UK’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). 

“In November, one of our key customers BAE Systems announced it was consulting on approximately 1,300 of potential job losses across five of its UK sites and also at RAF Cottesmore and RAF Kinloss, as well as job losses resulting from the potential early closure of the Woodford Site in Cheshire.

“This followed the cancellation of the Nimrod MR4 programme and the early withdrawal from service of the Harrier fleet. There has understandably been an impact of these announcements on the contractors supplied to our client in connection with these projects.

“Morson is, of course, making every effort to redeploy affected contractors to other projects. In particular, our work on the helicopter programmes has been largely unaffected by the SDSR and there are good civil aviation prospects for the forthcoming year. Also the continuation of the aircraft carriers and London Cross Rail programmes is encouraging. 

“In the forthcoming period we anticipate building on the 2010 investment in overseas markets and growing our footprint in new regions. There remain many new business tender opportunities and these are allowing us to invest in and increase our permanent recruitment offering. As a result the board continues to believe that it is well placed to benefit from any upturn in trading conditions.”