The headline looks grand: UK contracting is up year-on-year and also March temporary staff placement figures show an increase on February of this year. Okay, so it’s slight. 2% annually, 1% month on month.
But that’s overall. If you’re in London, you’ll be wondering where the Dickens that increase is coming from. If you’re in Scotland, you’ll know that’s a very conservative estimate indeed.
Temporary staffing levels enjoy continued increase
We’re used to politicians trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Sometimes, however, fabrication isn’t necessary as the truth has far deeper implications than any scheme cooked up in the shadowy corridors of Westminster.
The overall increments in temporary staffing are based on figures collated by APSCo and two very distinct patterns can be seen in the research results.
Full time placements are shocking. Even the ongoing investment by Government into the UK infrastructure via projects like HS2, Heathrow’s extensive expansion and Crossrail can’t prop up permanent placements.
However, requirements for contractors and interim managers for projects like those mentioned as helped keep temporary staff placements strong.
Worrying figures for South East as contracting plummets 15%
The most worrying trend for those in the capitol is the dynamic shift in where these skilled contracting jobs can now be found. And this despite the work being undertaken at Heathrow.
Year on year, March 31st 2012-2013, contracting jobs in the South fell by 15%. That’s a major slump and not singularly because so big a drop is headline-worthy in its own right.
When you think of the concentration of skilled contractor jobs and interim managerial positions in London and the South East, the “15%” becomes an even louder harbinger of doom.
Where have the contractor jobs gone to show an overall increase?
It seems that the economy is, at grass roots level at least, beginning to blossom further north. In fact, so far north, we’re talking Scotland.
Scottish contracting jobs have seen a massive rise, one third, in the last 12 months.
The nature of the jobs is similar to that of the national trend, being specifically for qualified interim managers and contractors who specialise in engineering.
With the economy’s long term future still uncertain but the need to grow very much acknowledged, there is no reason why this trend shouldn’t continue, at least until the global forecast looks a bit rosier.
Firms still don’t want to commit to employing full time managers for growth; they’d rather bring in specialists ad hoc as the need arises.
This is great news for contractors in the short term and a huge positive for the UK economy in the long term.
