The UK employment rate has seen its largest quarterly increase in 21 years, reaching 29.02 million.
New figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that in the three months leading to June, the jobs market improved by 0.3 per cent.
This will come as welcome news to many sales job hunters looking for work.
Employment is up by 104,000 on the year, but the market is still not where it once was, with 500,000 fewer people in jobs than there were two years ago.
Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), commented: “Looking ahead, public sector cuts will clearly be a factor and we can expect the deceleration in the jobs market to continue.
“However, we are not expecting there to be any significant increase in unemployment. What we can expect a flat jobs market with increased hiring activity in the private sector just about compensating for the public sector squeeze.”
The REC’s Report on Jobs survey showed a rise in permanent jobs during July, suggesting further increases in the next quarter of 2010.
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While UK unemployment has fallen, caution remains among candidates and employers alike.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that the number of people unemployed in the UK fell by 49,000 to 2.46m in the quarter to June, marking the second consecutive month that unemployment has fallen, and the biggest drop since 2007.
Despite the positive figures, a spokesperson at Hays told Recruiterthat there is still a lack of confidence from both candidates and clients. “Currently, there is a focus on public sector job cuts and concern over whether the private sector is going to be able to provide sufficient jobs to counteract redundancies.
“Throughout the recession specialist skills have remained in demand and this is continuing. Certain areas such as IT, pharma and senior finance continue to provide significant opportunities for candidates.
“Increasingly, there is also recruitment activity within the City as the majority of investment, corporate and retail banks continue to rebuild their businesses. Specifically, we are seeing a demand for permanent and interim candidates who have previously worked within financial markets.”
Dan Watkins, director of find-a-solicitor service, Contact Law, reports that there has been a significant rise in the number of people ringing in for legal advice on employment-related issues, particular those who have recently been made redundant or are about to lose their jobs.
“In the past month alone, employment-related enquiries have increased by 15%, the majority of which are coming from people working in the public sector. We expect the number of employment-related enquiries to rise considerably in the next six to 12 months as public sector cuts start to be implemented.”
David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), says that while the figures are better-than-expected, they mask worrying trends. “Employment is higher while unemployment and inactivity are both lower. However, the number of part-time workers rose to its highest level since records began, and the number of people unemployed for more than 12 months increased to a level not seen since 1997.”
According to purchaser of temporary agency labour de Poel, the use of temporary agency labour rose in July across all industry sectors by 2.8% compared with a universal decrease in the previous month of 13%.
Chief executive Matthew Sanders adds: “The findings suggest organisations are expanding their workforces to accommodate increased business activity, but are seeking an alternative to permanent recruitment and ‘safe ways’ of responding to market growth while the economy remains unstable.
However, the banking sector is one sector that does not currently appear to share such caution, according to Guy Emmerson, associate director of Badenoch & Clark’s Banking & Financial Services division.
“The first half of 2010 has seen a substantial increase in permanent positions in investment management. Distribution is currently a key area with a huge increase in request for proposal roles, as well as investment writing roles.
“As hedge fund business returns, we are seeing more vacancies for professionals with experience in stock lending as banks feel more confident in issuing stock and there is a greater requirement for equity financing.
“Compliance roles continue to come onto the market, with far more opportunities in investment banking for control room officers at all levels, compliance monitoring, portfolio guideline monitoring and surveillance.”
James Goodrich is a recruitment consultant and Director of Sales forAllegis Group Europe, and has worked for the company for 11 years.
The company specialises in IT recruitment, focusing on applications, infrastructure and communications. They also have divisions dedicated to engineering and also marketing, customer services and finance.
He told the BBC that he has seen an increase in movement in the IT sector in particular. Although there has been a big increase in candidates, people are feeling confident enough to move jobs, and he says he is very confident about the future.
Online job opportunities in Europe reached a 17-month high in July and the employment index rose for the sixth consecutive month, Monster Worldwide Inc. said on Tuesday. The employment index climbed to 115 from 114 in June, whilst online job demand was up 14% year-on-year.
Among industry sectors, automotive reported a solid rise, whilst transport, post and logistics and production, manufacturing, maintenance and repair exhibited a sharp uptick for the second consecutive month, mirroring growth in European industrial production and exports.
“July saw the Index extend to a sixth consecutive month of growth and reach a 17 month high, reflecting continual improvement on the demand-side of the job market,” commented Andrea Bertone, head of Monster Europe. “This coincides with rises in consumer confidence and business activity to suggest that now is an encouraging time for job seekers.”
National IFA 2Plan Wealth Management has hired eight recruitment directors in six months as it embarks on a drive to boost adviser numbers to 300 by the end of the year.
2Plan, which has 224 advisers, has built a 12-strong recruitment team and plans to increase that to 20 by 2011 to drive its recruitment effort.
It posted a loss of £557,000 for the first half of 2010, compared with a loss of £747,000 in the same period last year.
Its results show it has drawn down £900,000 less than anticipated in funding from 15% stakeholder Standard Life, receiving £7.6 million as opposed to the predicted £8.5 million since the provider invested in 2006.
Turnover for the first half of 2010 reached £5.7 million, £308,000 ahead of its business plan and up from £3.5 million in the same period last year.
New research suggests recruitment workers in the construction and engineering industry are in high demand.
A survey carried out by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and professional services firm KPMG suggests the market is positive for construction recruitment firms, with building jobs and civil engineering jobs well on the road to recovery after a challenging couple of years.
The construction and engineering sector placed top of the recruitment league with a 6.6 per cent rate of growth during the second quarter of 2010.
There was less good news for the healthcare recruitment sector, which recorded one of the sharpest declines, which has partly been attributed to imminent spending cuts.
Bernard Brown, from KPMG, commented on the findings:
“The UK job market continued to slow down in July with overall demand for staff rising at the slowest pace in eight months.’
”Surprisingly, engineering and construction is the sector where staff were most in demand, an indication of a sustained recovery in the manufacturing sector.”
Employers are being forced to pay premium rates for good staff despite remaining nervous about the economic outlook, according to experts.
The survey by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and KPMG showed starting salaries for permanent staff jumped from 53.9 in June to 56.1 last month – the highest since April 2008. Anything above 50 represents an increase. Year-on-year, wages have grown by 26pc, the report showed.
However, the number of permanent jobs available fell from 60.7 in June to 60.2 last month. While the figures still represent growth – they register above 50 – it is the slowest rate of expansion seen in nine months, the survey found.
The REC/ KPMG also highlighted several skills that were in short supply, including accountants, HR professionals and business analysts, on top of sectors that were traditionally hard to recruit for, such as IT or engineering.
Human resources (HR) chiefs across sectors agreed the ‘war for talent’ was back on following a period where staff had been willing to take pay cuts or work shorter hours just to stay in a job.
Christian Armstrong, HR director at Guoman & Thistle hotels, said: “Vacancies are declining as employers look to the uncertainty of the marketplace in the second half of the year.” But, he said: “In certain specialist occupations, the market has become more competitive in the fight to attract and retain the most talented staff.”
Specialist recruitment firm planning expansion into England this year on the back of record results
Recruitment consultancy Head Resourcing is on track to report a 300 per cent rise in turnover for 2010 after posting a record £14 million in revenues in its first-half results.
The Edinburgh-based recruitment firm, which specialises in IT, business change, international medical, sales, energy and business services, has already surpassed total revenue of £10 million posted at the year-end for 2009.
Managing director, Gordon Adam said the £14 million generated in the first half of 2010 was down to continued demand for both contract and permanent staff from large financial services clients.
The company anticipates turnover for 2010 will come in at around £30million an expected increase of 300 per cent on 2009 results.
Adam,said: “We are thrilled to report our best figures ever, with turnover exceeding our expectations.
“We have a strong reputation in the industry which ensures our clients loyalty and we all work hard to meet their needs effectively.
“I am certain that this winning combination will help us to continue our success throughout the course of the year.”
Head Resourcing is planning further expansion this month when it moves south of the border to implement expansion plans in Leeds.
If you got a job offer through a leading recruiter like Reed.co.uk you’d think it was genuine.
So Tony Feehan was delighted to be offered a week’s work as a driver for £330 by an employer registered on the website.
But something wasn’t right – and not just emails from his new boss ‘Jose’ describing himself as: “Creative. Swan-like. Deep. Brilliant.”
It was the Ulster Bank cheque for £3,190 sent to Tony, who was told to bank it, keep his wage and forward the balance to someone supposedly helping Jose with travel plans.
Suspicious, 47-year-old Tony from Glasgow contacted us. The bank confirmed that the cheque is a forgery.
This is cheque over-payment fraud. The conman had wanted Tony to forward the balance before the cheque bounced.
Mark Rhodes at Reed.co.uk, said they were aware of this type of scam, the ad had been removed and an alert sent to jobseekers about it.
“Keeping one step ahead of scammers like this can be challenging,” he said, fairly enough, before adding, rather depressingly: “In this instance, we also contacted the police who were unable to help since we were not the victims of the crime. They advise any jobseeker who believes they have been subject to any scam of this nature to report it to local police.”
Can that really be the case? It’s as if I see my neighbour’s house being broken into, but the police won’t do anything if I report it because I’m not the victim of the crime.
Three-quarters of graduate recruiters are concerned that accessing candidate information via Facebook and other online networks can get in the way of a “fair and measurable” recruitment process.
The findings come from from the Social Media Audit conducted by recruitment and marketing communications provider Penna Barkers.
However, the research also shows that just 5% have a clear policy on whether information accessed via such online sites can be used in selection processes.
Phill Lane, head of planning at Penna Barkers, says: “Social media is a hot topic in graduate recruitment and a substantial proportion (44%) of graduate recruiters has some kind of Facebook presence. But very few organisations have yet created a coherent social media strategy that deals effectively with the considerable potential for overlap between student, recruiter and line management use of the same platforms.”
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Comments Off 
The UK employment rate has seen its largest quarterly increase in 21 years, reaching 29.02 million.
While UK unemployment has fallen, caution remains among candidates and employers alike.
Online 
National IFA 2Plan Wealth Management has hired eight 
New research suggests recruitment workers in the construction and engineering industry are in high demand.
Employers are being forced to pay premium rates for good 
Specialist recruitment firm planning expansion into England this year on the back of record results
Three-quarters of graduate recruiters are concerned that accessing candidate information via Facebook and other online networks can get in the way of a “fair and measurable” recruitment process.
