Data has shown that the number of permanent jobs in the UK continues to decline. A report by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG said that some companies were waiting until after the Olympics had passed before they began recruiting, resulting in both June and July noting job vacancy declines.
Over July, recruitment agencies reported that there were more staff available for work and that there had been a drop in both short-term and permanent positions. KPMG’s Bernard Brown revealed that prior optimism surrounding the fact that labour market conditions seemed to be improving could now fall away, adding: “My concern is that any sigh of relief may be mistaken for a groan of exasperation, because the rate at which employers are recruiting has decreased for the second consecutive month, and this suggests that there is still a high degree of uncertainty.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Green of the REC said that he hailed the British workforce this year who, despite economic challenges and adversity, continued to pull unemployment levels down even whilst the economy shrank into a double dip recession; however, Mr Green said that there was now concern that both permanent and short-term positions were dropping, making it crucial for people to take jobs wherever they could. Meanwhile, recruitment agencies must strive to make as many appointments as possible to stem the flow of people looking for work as compared to the number of jobs that are actually available.
As featured in
