Unemployment in the UK has officially risen by 43,000 to 2.5 million, confirming that we still have a long way to go to get back to pre-recession recruitment levels.
The FSB recently conducted a survey of more than 1,400 of its members and found that 63% of small businesses, including recruitment agencies and umbrella companies, do not plan to increase their workforce over the coming 3 months.
Although small businesses are showing signs of steady growth, only 16% of the survey’s respondents expect to see an overall improvement in business performance in the next 3 months. 23% of those surveyed had a more pessimistic view and expect to see their situation to get worse.
A slightly more positive picture emerges from the latest JobsOutlook survey that shows that only 4% of employers expect to shrink their workforce over the next 3 months.
Kevin Green, chief Executive of the REC, predicts that unemployment has peaked and the next quarter should show a small reduction in the number of people out of work. However it is hard to forecast further ahead due to the uncertainties surrounding the upcoming election.
No-one in our industry knows for sure how the new government will cope with slashing public sector spending and what affect any measures will have on the umbrella company marketplace and the wider economy as a whole.
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