Apparently confidence in the British workplace has been on the increase over the past 12 months, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The new report from the Centre and YouGov says that promotions, recruitment, bonuses, and pay rises all increased over the last year, all indications that the British economy is back on an even keel and that employees and contract workers alike are in a good position to further their careers. On top of that another independent report also revealed that current levels of consumer confidence are just a hair under where they were before the recession – a peak of almost seven years.
It’s not just the real estate market that’s been driving the return to confidence, either. Property purchases had been doing all the heavy lifting for years, according to the report, but now with reports rolling in that workplaces and consumers are all firing on all cylinders there’s a definite feeling of cautious but welcome optimism permeating the entire British economy.
For what it’s worth, all I can really say is that it’s about bloody time! Not only that but I think it’s time that we all truly realise how much of this economic recovery is actually owed to the hard work of tireless freelancers and umbrella company contractors everywhere. Self-employed Brits like contractors helped keep businesses from shuttering when they couldn’t afford to hire on full-time employees, allowing them to stay in business and also control their expenses enough to get them through the lean times.
Contractors are still playing a vibrant and important role of course, especially since the only problem now facing the economic recovery is the skills shortage. Employers are finding it difficult to fill open roles with permanent workers due to the lack of qualified candidates, but once again freelancers are swooping in to the rescue as a stopgap measure until permanent employees can get the requisite training and experience they need to continue to support the economic recovery themselves. Smarter minds than mine are working on that problem as well, so let’s just hope that’s all taken care of before even the supply of self-employed Brits is exhausted by the demands of a once more happily growing economy, shall we?
