IT umbrella company contractors were probably a bit disheartened when they read the latest Jobs Outlook from the REC.
In December, companies were reasonably optimistic about their hiring intentions over the next 12 months and the REC index registered +55 for IT temporary roles. However, when the REC asked employers the same question in January, they were more downbeat and the index dropped to just +15. There has also been a drop in hiring intentions over the next three months. In December, the index for short-term hiring stood at +65, but by last month this had fallen to +50.
Commenting on the latest Report, the REC said several sectors have witnessed a change in future demand indicators. A lot of employers seem to have decided to wait out the current economic crisis before making a decision on expanding the size of their temporary workforce.
More than a third of the respondents to the REC’s latest survey made no changes to the size of their workforce in 2011. However, one piece of good news to come out of the Report is that fewer companies made redundancies, cut pay or froze headcounts.
Some people expected companies to reduce their use of agency workers once the Agency Workers Regulations became law on the first of October last year. It would appear that fear was largely unfounded as two-thirds of the REC’s respondents said AWR has had no affect on the size of their temporary workforce.
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