Although private sector recruitment slowed only slightly in December, the next few months are likely to be “very tough” employment-wise as employers remain cautious while they wait to see the impact of the coalition government’s austerity measures.
According to a study undertaken by management consultancy KPMG on behalf of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, the number of permanent placements fell to 54.9 in December from 55.2 in November, while the hiring of temporary staff dropped to 52.8 from 53.5. Numbers above 50 indicate net hiring among the panel of 400 recruitment agencies polled each month.
On the bright side, however, the number of permanent staff vacancies rose at their sharpest rate in four months, while growth in the number of temporary positions hit a six month high of 54.9.
Kevin Green, the REC’s chief executive, said: “While these figures continued to show private sector employment doing well, the next few months will be very tough for the jobs market in the UK. With public sector cuts, the VAT rise and slowing economic growth, we expect to see businesses being much more cautious about hiring in the short-term.”
He added that addressing the fact that one million under 24s were neither in employment or education must be a key priority for the government over the year ahead in order to ensure the long-term success of the economy.
Official data showed that 2.5 million people or 7.9% of the total available workforce were jobless last month, but the REC expects unemployment to peak by the middle of this year at 2.65 million or 8.4%.
Despite the increase in the number of vacancies available, however, a survey undertaken by online outplacement service provider MyWorkSearch revealed that 57% of job seekers believed the job market had worsened in December as they were unable to find suitable opportunities.
Just over three quarters of respondents said they were applying for temporary posts and 63% for part-time jobs because a scarcity of posts meant that they could not find suitable full-time or permanent positions. Almost all of those questions added that they were prepared to apply for more junior roles than they were used to simply to get a job.
About three out of five were cautiously optimistic that the job market would improve over the next three months, however.
