uktemps - temporary and part time jobs

The Report on Jobs published today by the REC and KPMG signalled strong and accelerated rises in both part time jobs placements and permanent positions billings in February.

Permanent placements increased at the sharpest rate in 10 months while temporary billings posted the greatest rise since May 2007.

Higher staff appointments were underpinned by robust growth of demand for staff in February. The overall level of job vacancies increased at the strongest rate since April 2010.

The availability of candidates to fill job vacancies was reported to have increased in the latest survey period. Growth of temporary staff availability remained notably stronger than that of permanent workers.

The rate of inflation of permanent staff salaries eased to a three-month low in February and remained below the survey’s long-run average. Temporary staff hourly pay increased modestly.

Kevin Green, the REC’s Chief Executive, says:

“The UK now has a two-speed labour market. The private sector continues to hire in increasing numbers while the public sector is shedding jobs. This is highlighted in the latest Report on Jobs which reports that the nursing, medical and care sectors have significantly declined from a year ago. In comparison, the IT and computing sector saw accelerated growth over the same period.

“We anticipate that unemployment will increase over the spring, summer and autumn before very slowly starting to decline at the very end of this year and into 2012. The scandal within the UK jobs market is that nearly one million young people – over 20 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds - are not in work or education. Young people seem to be excluded from the growing number of vacancies as employers remain conservative, favouring experience over potential.

“The REC is calling on the Government to unleash the job creation potential of SMEs and tackle youth unemployment in its forthcoming enterprise budget. A National Insurance holiday of at least one year for every young person employed by a smaller company is an obvious win-win for both business and jobseekers.”

Bernard Brown, Partner and Head of Business Services at KPMG comments:

“The encouraging trend which started in January continued last month with permanent placements rising at their fastest rate in 10 months and temp billings showing their strongest increase since May 2007. Employers in the IT & Computing and Engineering & Construction sectors are again those most actively recruiting. This might be an indication that a private sector led recovery is indeed under way.

“What the Government needs to do now is to support growth. It needs to encourage private sector investment into the provision of public services to mitigate the cuts and job losses we are expecting across the public sector. It also should continue to help and promote British exports in order to enable UK manufacturers to expand globally which many of them will need to do in order to survive.”

Tags: UKtemps website news by Paul // Add a comment »

Employers in the Technology sector continue to be the most active hirers in the UK, according to the REC’s monthly Report on Jobs.

The Report, compiled in partnership with KPMG, found that demand for permanent IT and computing staff had risen more rapidly during February than for any other sector.

Demand for temporary staff also saw strong growth, standing third amongst sectors measured but with substantially increased demand compared to one year ago.

The IT skills reported to be in shortest supply for permanent vacancies were business analysts, and candidates with PHP and CA knowledge.

For temporary assignments, employers found it difficult to secure people with C++ training.

Commenting, Jeff Brooks, Chair of the REC Technology group, said: “It’s really encouraging to see demand for IT and communications staff growing ever faster, proving that the jobs of the future continue to be hi-tech. It’s important that companies are investing in systems which can make a real difference to their competitive edge as well as reducing costs.

Tags: IT News by Paul // Add a comment »

As the annual TUC women’s conference begins in Eastbourne today (Wednesday) the TUC is warning that the government faces a potential crisis in female unemployment - and that its current economic strategy risks making the situation much worse.
While more men lost their jobs in the recent recession than women and more men than women remain out of work, over the last year male employment has begun to recover (with a 238,000 increase in employment levels and a 0.4 point increase in the rate) while female employment has fallen (19,000 over the same period and a 0.5 point fall in the rate).
During the past 12 months overall male unemployment has fallen by 31,000 (with the rate falling by 0.3 percentage points), while female unemployment has risen by 71,000 (with the rate increasing by 0.5 percentage points).
Although they face a far higher risk of unemployment overall, the situation is similar for young people (aged 18-24). Unemployment amongst young men has dropped slightly by 0.4 percentage points, while there has been an increase of 1.6 points for young women.
TUC analysis of official Labour Force Survey figures from July-September 2010 shows that in some parts of the country as many as one in five young women (20 per cent) aged between 16-24 are currently unemployed.
The worst hit areas are Merseyside, where unemployment among young women has risen by 11 per cent since the recession started, the West Midlands (10 per cent increase) and Scotland and Yorkshire (which have both seen 9 per cent increases).
This rise in female unemployment comes at a time when the number of jobs in sectors where may women work is still far lower than was the case at the start of the recession.
Since the downturn there has been a fall of 34,000 in retail vacancies, a 14,000 fall in administrative and secretarial jobs, the number of education vacancies has fallen by 20,000 and the number of jobs in health and social work has fallen by 18,000.
With redundancies in the public sector - where more than a third of women in work are employed - set to increase as a result of government spending cuts, and slow economic growth likely to mean that vacancy levels remain low across ‘female’ sectors like retail and admin, the TUC believes women are in for a tough few years.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘While the government focuses all its energy on cuts, our unemployment crisis continues to grow.
‘The UK desperately needs an economic strategy that prioritises growth and jobs to bring revenues in and the deficit down. The current plan of deep, rapid cuts is causing job losses to mount and sending our economy in the wrong direction.
‘Women worried about losing their jobs or vital public services in the cuts should join at least 100,000 people coming from all parts of the country - including public sector workers, faith groups, community organisations, volunteers, campaigners and families - on the TUC’s March for the Alternative on Saturday 26 March in London.’

Tags: UKtemps website news by Paul // Add a comment »

Responding to the review of vocational education by Professor Alison Wolf, Tom Wilson, director of unionlearn, said:
‘We agree with Professor Wolf’s support for the expansion of high quality apprenticeships that will offer genuine career progression for young people. It is interesting that she makes the point that in general apprenticeships in the UK compare less favourably with those in many other Europe countries which tend to offer a broader level of training.

We also endorse Professor Wolf’s view that young people should have a general education to the age of 16, including the achievement of minimum standards in maths and English, and that 14 is too early to specialise.

Unionlearn is working closely with unions and the National Apprenticeship Service to build the capacity of union reps to support young apprentices in the workplace and to encourage more employers to recruit them.”

Tags: UKtemps website news by Paul // Add a comment »