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.
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.
London has experience relatively strong economic growth of late and yet despite this, London’s employment rate is about 5% below the national average.
The London Development Agency has said that putting unemployed Londoners into employment was possibly the biggest economic challenges that the city faces in coming years.
The UK’s average employment rate is 74.4%, London’s employment rate is just 69.3%, the city’s relatively low skills level is often blamed for the high level of worklessness. On top of this, the barriers still faced by some black and minority ethnic groups, disabled people, households with children and lone parent families add to the problems.
On a more positive note when relating to productivity levels many economists are predicting that the capital’s economy is set to grow even faster in the next few years.
Tesco is creating around 450 jobs over the next month with the opening of 15 new branches of Tesco Express across the UK.
New stores that are opening across the UK include Olympia, West London, Portsmouth, Hants, Cardiff; Southport, Lancs, Walthamstow, East London; Greenwich, South London and Glasgow. Each store will need a raft of employees including management staff and shelf stackers and checkout staff, working during the day with customers and shelf-stacking at night. So if you’re in the market for a part time role day or night then Tesco’s could your answer.
