It would appear that people seeking executive jobs in the UK are not as confident that Britain is “open for business” as the Chancellor is.
TheLadders.co.uk, an executive services website, conducted a survey at the beginning of this month that discovered that George Osborne’s Budget only increased the confidence of 22% of executive jobseekers.
At the heart of this lack of confidence is the belief that the private sector will be unable to absorb the high number of public sector redundancies. 78% of the survey’s respondents think the amount of newly created private sector jobs will not be enough to counterbalance job losses.
Worryingly, 49% of Brits seeking an executive job would be prepared to move overseas to find employment. Unless new jobs are created quickly, this “brain drain” could see top talent leaving the UK.
61% of the survey’s respondents would be prepared to take a cut in salary in order to secure a new position. However, that might not be necessary as the latest REC/KPMG Report on jobs shows average starting salaries are now at their highest in eight months. Employers have realised that they need to compete harder if they want to hire the best, especially in the engineering, finance and IT sectors.
Meanwhile, the current number of people unemployed in the UK stands at 2.48 million, a decrease of 17,000 on the previous quarterly figures.
Despite this welcome news, Tom Hadley from the REC warns that the job market is still extremely fragile. The latest Report on Jobs showed that vacancies have risen to their highest level in 12 months giving a tentative sign that public sector redundancies could be absorbed into the private sector.
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