The Recruitment & Employment Confederation has called on the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown to maintain labour market flexibility and tackle the skills crisis.

Helen Reynolds, acting chief executive of the REC, says: “In relation to new priorities, the first I would give Brown would be skills. Our members experience candidate shortages on a daily basis, from engineers to social care workers. The new government needs a new strategy to ensure that the children of today become the skilled workers businesses need tomorrow.

“Skills shortages will not be resolved in the short term and so it is therefore vital that the new points-based system for immigration, due to come into force next year, meets the needs of employers.”

Reynolds adds that another priority that is likely to be taken forward by the new government is to get one million people off benefits and into work. “This target is ambitious, but if it is combined with the skills strategy it could start to deliver the right candidates to recruitment agencies.

“The REC and the recruitment industry have an active role to play in this agenda.  Recruitment agencies are ideal intermediaries for identifying skills gaps and getting people into work,” Reynolds says.