Contractors may be interested to learn that the latest Employment Outlook Survey from Manpower predicts that hiring will increase slightly in Q2. The survey reveals that the seasonally adjusted net outlook for employment is +2%.
The banking, finance and business services sector is the most buoyant with a reading of +16%. The manufacturing sector has positive hiring intentions as do employers in mining, transport and utilities. Employers in the South East, South West and the East of England are most likely to hire in Q2, whilst those in Northern Ireland, Scotland and the West Midlands could be making redundancies rather than hiring.
Globally, the recruitment market seems to be recovering well. Antal recently conducted a Global Snapshot survey in 47 countries. The results show that just 16% of companies intend to shed staff in the next 6 months compared to the 23% that were when the survey was conducted last September.
66% of UK companies said they planned to increase hiring putting us second in the list behind Luxembourg where 86% of organisations intend to recruit additional employees.
Meanwhile, the REC/KPMG monthly Report on Jobs shows increases in both temporary staff billings and permanent placements in February. Temporary billings recorded their greatest increase for nearly four years.
Kevin Green from the REC pointed out that private sector hire is increasing while the public sector is making redundancies. Vacancies in the IT and computing sector have been accelerating whilst those in nursing and care sectors have declined significantly.
The REC expects to see unemployment figures continue to rise until the end of autumn before staring a very slow decline into 2012. He also stressed that more than 20% of young people are in neither work nor education at the moment, a situation which needs to be addressed in the forthcoming Budget. Green would like to see the government introduce a National Insurance holiday, lasting at least 12 months, for every young person taken on by an SME.
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Image: Three going up by mag3737
