Rumour has it that umbrella company workers may soon be able to benefit from an increase in recruitment opportunities quite soon indeed.
At least, that is if you think that the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s latest JobsOutlook survey can be believed. The REC found that firms have indicated that they have plans to grow their workforce over the next 12 months – and that among those they polled for the study, more than 4 out of every 10 of those 600 firms specifically said that they want to grow the number of interim workers, such as freelancers and contractors, they use currently. This figure was up by two percentage points in comparison to last month’s REC JobsOutlook report.
Not only that, the number of businesses that said they have pans to downsize their workforce was quite low. The total, according to the research study anyway, was a relatively paltry 8 per cent, which bodes well for anyone hoping to avoid losing their job or looking to pick up extra work as a self-employed contract worker.
So what’s driving this new increase in hiring enthusiasm? Well I’m no economist but plenty people smarter than I am have said that it’s most likely due to higher confidence brought about by improved business prospects; on top of that, there’s plenty of evidence that there are some economic changes – positive ones for once – that could be revitalising our flagging economy.
One of the biggest advantages we have right now is that the cost of living has finally come down a bit. The inflation rate is coming back down to less reprehensible levels, as it’s finally fallen to a still rather high but much better than before 2.4 per cent; this makes it much easier for firms to sell their wares over the next few months unless the inflation rate creeps back up.
David Kern, who is one of those blokes smarter than I am in his role as the British Chambers of Commerce’s chief economist, commented on the new developments. He said that lowered inflation rates will benefit domestic demand by hampering global exporters; more domestic sales will most certainly translate into economic recovery, Mr Kern said, and I for one believe that he’s got the right idea about the whole thing.
I suppose it remains to be seen what actually happens over the next few months, but if you’re a contractor you should be on the lookout for greater demand for your services in the immediate future!
