The manufacturing and engineering sectors are displaying early signs of recovery.

Dean Ball, regional managing director of Michael Page Manufacturing, told Recruiter that placements were rising and were higher than that at any time since last October. 

 “Companies that have destocked have such low stocks that they need to reorder, and our orders have increased accordingly,” says Ball.

This correlates exactly with figures released earlier this week, he says, which showed that manufacturing output declined by only 0.1% in March, the smallest decline in a year.  

Ball says clients are now making “tactical placements - anything from manufacturing directors, to merged supply chain and production positions”.

This is occurring across a wide range of sectors. 

Ball says that a brick manufacturer recently told him that he had manufactured and shipped more bricks in March than in any month during the past five years.

“I don’t think we are necessarily seeing green shoots but because of the restocking things are slowly grinding into motion.”

The number of such placings is not huge, “but if everyone orders a bit, that’s what we need”, he adds.

“It’s going to be very interesting to see if this is a continuing trend.”

Mark Hepworth, managing director of JobsGroup.net, which operates niche job board JustEngineers.net, told Recruiter there were signs of greater confidence in the engineering sector.

“More direct employers and agencies are both posting a greater volume of jobs on JustEngineers.net and searching our CV database to attract highly skilled candidates, the overwhelming majority of which remain in employment despite the downturn and therefore are highly sought after to help companies undertake the huge range of projects that will regardless of the recession, from 2012 to Crossrail.”