Leading recruiters from the West Midlands attended Recruiter's regional forum in Birmingham at the end of November to discuss the latest trends and issues affecting the industry.

Among the topics discussed were the resurgence of manufacturing in the region and its beneficial spin-offs, the need for recruiters to work together and changes in the market for migrant labour — for example, are migrant workers becoming more aware of their true worth in the market?

Other key issues discussed were the difficulties in finding good consultants, margins and efforts being made to help the long-term unemployed — are they a good source of potential candidates or too much like hard work?

Recruiting companies represented were: Pertemps People Development, Extra Personnel, Now Recruitment, Gatenby Sanderson and Hudson.

A full report on the forum will appear in the 16 January issue of Recruiter.