Welcome news for temporary workers and freelancers comes in the form of the REC’s JobsOutlook report for June and the ONS.
According to the REC, a third of all employers plan to increase their use of temporary workers in the long term. Increased usage of contractors has already been noted by the ONS who said that an additional 50,000 people were taken on temporary contracts in the first quarter of this year compared to 2009.
Employers have increased their demands for short-term agency workers as uncertainty still remains over the UK’s long-term economic prospects. Utilising flexible resourcing, such as the usage of umbrella company workers, is likely to continue for the immediate future as most employers think they will wait until at least the autumn before making decisions about permanent hiring.
Roger Tweedy from the REC said that they are starting to see positive signs of employment growth and puts this down to the feeling that the new coalition government is good for job creation.
Recruiters will welcome the news that up to 6 million employees plan to look for new opportunities now that the recession has ended.
However, there is still uncertainty surrounding the public sector and this will to some extent offset the private sector growth. Whilst some permanent jobs in the public sector are likely to be axed, demand for contractors and interim management specialists is likely to increase to cope with change management programmes.
23,000 additional people became unemployed in the quarter ending April according to the latest figures from the ONS. The current figure stands at 2.47 million although only 1.48 million of these are claiming jobseekers allowance.
Of concern is the fact that 926,000 young people aged between 16 and 24 who have neither work nor attend a training course. The REC is calling on the government to do more to help youngsters get a foot on the jobs ladder and it intends to make specific recommendations to the coalition in the coming few weeks.
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Image: perspective by paul (dex)
