The number of vacancies in London saw a 9% increase in June 2008 compared to May this year.
In tandem with this, the number of candidates looking for jobs has also increased by about 6%. This means that the total number of jobhunters is currently 17% higher than in 2007.
Jobseekers are taking an average of c.60 days to secure a new position primarily because clients are taking longer to complete jobs. This increased time is a good time to consider temp work as an interim.
More than 70,000 migrant workers managed to find work across the UK’s unemployment blackspots last year which has led to claims that the government is failing to get people on long term unemployment benefits back to work.
1,360 migrants found work in Rochdale Manchester where the employment rate is as high as 76%, in Enfield (London) there is an area which has 59% of their residents claiming jobseeker’s allowance, yet 500 migrants managed to find work in the area. In Caerphilly South Wales where 53% of the residents are unemployed 270 migrants found jobs.
You get the picture, some of these areas literally have whole generations of families on benefit, the question that also needs to be asked is whether the benefit actually out weighs the employment that migrants have seemingly been able to source. Between 2003 and 2007 the number of UK Nationals in word decreased by 409,000 to 25.2m, over this same period the number of migrants in employment from Eastern Europe in the UK grew from 29,000 to 410,000….. a scary pattern is emerging…
A £15m refurbishment and extension planat the Tottenham Hale Retail Park in North London with three significant lettings. Asda Living has taken the largest unit on the park, this will be the first store inside the M25 for Asda’s homewares format.
This is the first ASDA Living inside of the M25 and is underlines the strength of the refurbishment, Next and JD Sports are also other key retailers to take up positions at the store, see below for the Tottenham Hale Retail Park.
The West End of London is investing vast amounts of money to keep ahead of local competiton. The heads of leading retailers met with Mayor Livingstone recently to discuss the proposed investment of up to £34 Million. This will see the West End transformed over the next 5 years in time for the Olympic games in 2012.
The imminent opening of large shopping centres in White City, Stratford, Elephant and Castle and Wandsworth will see the capitals retail market change phenomenonly. The outcome for the job hunter is that numerous jobs will e created across the retail sector as well as across construction and engineering as these sites need to be developed and transport links between them and to them need to be upgraded.
There is much talk at the moment of the activity in the credit markets and what the effects will be in the city. We have seen a number of large banks announce losses and lose senior staff.
The chances are that a percentage of the market will reduce there numbers of permanent hires and in an effort to reduce cost will boost their numbers of temps. In the short term their cost is lower and therefore firms who still need staff will undoubtedly resort to temps to keep them fully staffed.
So the effects of the crunch could have a positive outcome for temps in the city of London.
