A new report from APSCo suggests that temporary workers might be in for a hard time in the next few months.
Recently, the jobs market for long-term umbrella contractors and permanent workers has been buoyant, but demand for temporary workers across a range of sectors has decreased.
In April, demand for science and technology temps dropped by 18% and HR positions decreased by 14%. Sales and retail temporary vacancies fell by 9% and short-term opportunities in banking and finance were down 8%.
The chief executive of APSCo, Ann Swain, said economists have been fretting over the fragile employment market for some time and although unemployment has not reached the 3 million figure some had feared, there is still a great deal of uncertainty.
The jobs market has not yet felt the full impact of recent public sector redundancies and it is unsure whether the private sector recovery will be strong enough to absorb public sector job losses.
Meanwhile, the CIPD and Hays Recruitment have published the results of their “Resourcing and Talent Planning Annual Survey”.
The results show that small businesses continue to struggle to find candidates with relevant skills even though they receive numerous applications for every post. 75% of respondents reported problems over the past year, up 7 percentage points on 2010.
It would appear that small firms are increasingly turning to umbrella contractors to satisfy the talent shortage in their business. 29% of businesses said contractors were a core part of their talent planning and 62% think demand for contractors will increase.
Companies are still reluctant to take on permanent staff due to continued economic uncertainty and this has to spell good news for highly skilled temps and contractors.
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