According to the KPMG and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s (REC’s) latest ‘UK Report on Jobs’, the rise in candidate supply of both permanent and temp staff was the quickest for almost three years.

Recruiters surveyed by S&P Global for the report widely linked the increased availability to redundancies and workers concerned over current job security. 

At the same time, the report said, rates of starting salary and temp pay inflation slipped to nearly three-year lows. “While competition for suitably-skilled workers continued to push up pay overall, budgetary pressures at clients had reportedly weighed on overall growth,” the report said.

“The averages hide a great deal of variability in regions and sectors though,” said REC CEO Neil Carberry. “The Midlands and the North both saw strong performances for temporary and permanent roles, in sharp contrast with London and the South, with permanent hiring in London especially slow.”

Carberry added: “For policy makers, any return to growth will put strain on a labour market with embedded shortages – [last week’s] pro-election rather than pro-economy decision on immigration will exacerbate that. [Editor’s note: see today’s Analysis for more information.] 

“Any return to growth could drive domestically-generated inflation unless we adopt a proper plan for workforce capacity, embracing better welfare-to-work support, finally reforming the Apprenticeship Levy, funding Further Education properly and… support for school leavers.”

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