Partner Article

Demand for temporary workers rises

Demand for temporary workers has risen once again, as fewer people are being recruited to permanent positions.

Research compiled by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG, across 400 recruitment agencies, found a drop in permanent job vacancies.

Pay pressures remained subdued in November, with both permanent salaries and temporary/contract staff hourly rates increasing only marginally.

The availability of staff to fill vacancies continued to rise in November, but at a slower pace, and the growth of permanent candidate availability was only marginal, presenting the weakest growth since May.

Bernard Brown, Partner and Head of Business Services at KPMG commented: “This month’s Report on Jobs makes grim reading.

“Given the uncertainties of the European market, the Government’s recent stimulus package could not have come sooner, as unemployment creeps ever higher.

“While most commentators suggest unemployment will peak lower than 3 million, this figure may be tested in the year ahead.

“Time will tell if recent interventions are enough to reverse the worrying trend of the last few months. If so, we should pick this up in our statistics over the next few months.”

He went on to highlight bright-spots in the otherwise gloomy data, pointing to the rising demand in permanent placements for engineering and construction staff, ahead of this time last year.

Demand also rose for IT and computing staff, and for executive/professional and secretarial/clerical categories.

Kevin Green, the REC’s chief executive said: “This month’s report highlights a rapidly declining jobs market. The market has been slowing since May but this slowdown has accelerated in the autumn.

“This is being driven by the double whammy of falling business and consumer confidence.

“This is bad news for those out of work and, as a consequence, we expect unemployment to rise in December and January.

“On a positive note however, the report shows that temporary staff appointments are still growing, albeit at a decreasing rate.

“The Government has done as much as it can in the short term to remove restrictions to employment and stimulate demand, however, if confidence doesn’t return quickly to get the jobs market moving again, the Government may need to take more radical action in the New Year.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .