REC / KPMG Report on Jobs (Mar 2010)

So its official, a 0.3% increase in GDP signals the end of the recession – hurrah! However, we are not hanging out the bunting quite yet, as we are just as cynical (and fatigued) by government “adjusted” figures as you. Accordingly, despite many of our clients also validating a more positive start to 2010, we prefer to take our lead from a truly independent source that we trust implicitly, since we help produce it!

Markit Economics ‘Report on Jobs’ is jointly sponsored by KPMG & the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) who collect data each month from a select number of UK recruitment consultancies, of which Technology Resourcing is one. Consequently, we benefit from the resulting comprehensive reports, across all industry sectors, which are hugely valuable to us as they show early trends in areas such as Demand for Staff by Sector, Staff Availability and Pay Pressures. We also recognise the potential benefit to some of our clients, so are happy to continue to make them all readily available as pdf downloads on our website.

This latest report (for Mar ’10) highlights that both permanent and contract appointments rose again through February, with staff placements increasing at their fastest rate since July 2007 and permanent salaries rising to a 20-month high. Encouragingly, our sectors (Engineering, IT and Construction), which were amongst the very hardest hit by the recession, are now showing the strongest improvements.

KPMG’s Bernard Brown (Partner & Head of Business Services) then went on to warn “This all comes with one big warning: the impact of the inevitable public sector recession on the jobs market has yet to be felt and will be played out over the next six to twelve 12 months”. Kevin Green (REC’s Chief Exec) agrees that public sector recruitment culd drop off fast and advises “Rather than responding with random job cuts, the public sector needs to embrace radical reform”. So, regardless of who wins the next election, savage job cuts in the public sector are a certainty.