UK job placements rising fast

By Jessica Healy, OurWorld Editor

The ‘Report on Jobs’ was published yesterday by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and KPMG.

Why the rise?

Permanent and temporary placements continued to grow for the thirty-first month in succession.

KPMG attributes the rising demand for staff to ‘rising levels of business activity at UK companies’.

What kind of jobs?

Accounting/financial employees posted the strongest growth of demand among permanent staff.

Engineering/construction staff were the most sought-after category of temporary employee.

However, manufacturing employment continued to decline.

A challenge for employers?

“The December figures indicate continued pressure on the job market from an employer perspective,” said Michael Carter, People Services Partner at KPMG.

“The anticipation of strong demand and order growth in 2006 means that there could be a challenging time ahead for employers,” he continued.

Flexible labour market aids recruitment

Raul Kharbanda, Research Manager at UK Trade & Investment agreed this presents a recruitment challenge, but points out that the UK is consistently one of the best places in Europe to recruit.

“We have a very flexible labour market. This adds up to a very dynamic and varied pool of labour that is available to inward investors.”

According to the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business 2005’ survey the UK scores well.

Assessing the level of difficulty for hiring and firing (zero being best), the UK scored 10 and 11 points respectively.

Europe averaged a much worse 26 points for both hiring and firing.

UK wage inflation and salaries remain low.

Office for National Statistics data released in November 2005 suggests the UK maintains competitive labour costs.

British median gross weekly earnings in 2005 were US$744, and the median salary increased by only 2.8% on 2004 figures.