Technical Moves Blog

Jobs Market Review – July 2011

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG Report on Jobs – published this week – provides the most comprehensive guide to the UK labour market, drawing on original survey data provided by recruitment consultancies of which Technical Moves have contributed. The most recent report on Jobs data received during July 2011 is summarised as follows:

Summary

• Modest rises in permanent placements and temporary billings 
• Demand for staff grows at slowest pace in eight months 
• Pay growth quickens from June’s low but remains muted
• Faster improvement in candidate availability

Modest rise in staff appointments

Recruitment consultants reported further increases in the number of people placed into both permanent and temporary job roles during July. Rates of growth quickened slightly from June’s lows but remained below long-run trends.   

Slower growth of vacancies

Demand for staff continued to rise in July, but the rate of expansion eased further to the slowest for eight months. The most sought-after workers were those in the engineering & construction and IT sectors, while the weakest demand trends were signalled for employees in the hospitality and healthcare categories. 

Pay inflation picked up but still subdued

Growth of both permanent salaries and temp hourly rates quickened in July, but remained below their respective averages since the start of the survey in October 1997.  

Faster rise in candidate availability

Higher levels of staff availability were reported in July. Permanent candidate supply improved at the sharpest rate for 18 months, while the latest rise in temp availability was the strongest since February.

Comments:

Kevin Green, Chief Executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, says: “This month’s Report on Jobs shows that the rate of jobs growth in July quickened from June’s figures. These figures show that the jobs market is continuing to perform well despite general weakness in the UK economy.  We have now had two years of continuous growth and employers are still continuing to hire staff, albeit not in the numbers needed to radically reduce unemployment.

“Employment is just one per cent off its pre-recession peak but the economy is still struggling at four per cent down in comparison with 2007/2008 figures. The UK’s flexible labour market is a key reason why employment is continuing to grow. Employers are using large numbers of temporary workers which, with the Agency Workers Regulations less than two months away from implementation, shows that businesses continue to see the value of using a flexible workforce.”

Bernard Brown, Partner and Head of Business Services at KPMG comments: 

“Permanent and temporary staff appointments have risen again in July, although at a very moderate pace. “The good news is that we are seeing no further deterioration in the jobs market but growth is still much slower than at the beginning of the year.

Carl Wright, Director – Technical Moves comments:

“July saw Technical Moves experience some signs of localised improvement within the East Anglia employment sector. However, the improvement is still not across the board with construction, architecture and housing still remaining subdued. We hope that the improvement seen in some sectors will see a positive effect spread into other sectors as the year continues and confidence builds, particularly once we are the other side of the holiday season.”