Grey Power is here to stay

Last Friday was the final day that employers in the UK could force workers to quit just for being 65. Prior to April 2011, employers could give workers between six and 12 months' notice of intention to force them to retire.  The abolishment of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) means the choice of when to stop working has been put in the hands of older workers themselves.   For those who want to keep working past 65, this is a positive development.   

Alex Currie , HR Advisor Go Compare ,  is the happy recipient of the recent £150 first  prize Recruitment Partnership  offered clients who took part in their recent customer satisfaction survey.

The results were collated from a broad range of clients from FTSE 100 to small enterprises across the UK. The results showed over  90%  of customers thought that Recruitment Partnership’s  services provided good value for money.

“Business took a break from hiring for the Olympics as a "significant" recruitment slowdown hit the market for white-collar jobs, industry professionals said today.

The latest jobs data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) revealed falling professional vacancies for both permanent and temporary staff in August. Permanent job vacancies were down 24 per cent on the same month last year, with temporary roles down 15 per cent, according to its latest snapshot of the market.

The latest jobs data covers professional workers in fields such as accountancy, law, banking, engineering, IT and marketing.

Ann Swain, chief executive, said: "This year, with the added distraction of the Olympics, some workplaces slowed almost to a standstill and businesses may have decided to put recruitment on temporary hold."”

Over 80% of UK contractors do not search for a new role until the last two months of an ongoing contract and 15% of these do not even start searching until they are already out of work.

This is according to a survey of 1,605 contractors nationwide by umbrella company FPS Group and freelance professionals jobs board ContractJobs.com.

The survey also finds that 42% of contractors secured their current position through a recruitment agency and 30% found it through friends and family.

FPS chief financial office Matt Huddleston suggests that the results “show recruitment agencies are still the first port of call for contractors looking for a new position”.

Recruitment has returned to growth following an early spring slump and a December 2011 nadir, according to the latest jobs data from APSCo.  According to the latest data, permanent placements rose sharply by 17% month on month and vacancies rose 19% (m/m). Job placements and vacancies are respectively 34% and 35% up on December 2011’s lows.  Not so good news for graudates that are being squeezed.   Graduate starting salaries are down as employers benefit from the high number of graduates chasing every role. Data compiled by Broadbean shows that average graduate salaries have plummeted 20.5% from this time last year to £24,070. Ann Swain, APSCO, adds: “Graduates have been hit hard by reduced graduate recruitment by the professions, which continues to squeeze starting salaries for those graduates lucky enough to break their way into the professions.”  “With professional recruitment showing signs of improvement, it could be that graduate intakes also start to recover during this summer’s graduate recruitment season.”

Temp demand rising in some sectors but down overall, says APSCo report.

The demand for financial services and engineering temporary workers rose over the month of March, but cross sector remains lower than the levels seen last year.

This is according to the Association of Professional Staffing Companies’ (APSCo’s) ‘Monthly Trends’ report, surveying members of the association.

It shows that financial service temp demand is up 37% month-on-month, but down 35% when compared to the same month in the previous year.

In engineering, demand is 3% up on the month, and 5% on the year, while across all sectors temporary demand declined 1% across the month, but was still 10% lower than in March 2011.

In the permanent space, demand was down both on the month (21%) and on the year (3%).

Ann Swain, chief executive of APSCo, says: “Understandably, with the outlook still uncertain, employers have turned to temporary workers to plug any immediate skills gaps.”

Caroline Hudson, director at recruiter Argyll Scott, adds: “Many financial firms still have strict headcount limits in place and are finding it very difficult to get sign-off on permanent hires. The use of temporary workers has risen, partly to compensate.”

She adds: “There is significant demand for skills to work on implementing change management programmes in banks and other financial institutions. The project cycles tend to be of a fixed, shorter-term duration, so interim managers are often the preferred resource.”

Opportunities on the rise!

The UK labour market is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Reed Job Index.
Vacancies increased by 9% in the first quarter of 2012, compared with the same period last year, whilst there was a 6% increase between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012. This rise in job vacancies suggests the UK economy may be well placed to avoid a double dip recession.

Financial services sector continues to grow

The recovery in the UK financial services sector is continuing, a survey has suggested, with optimism improving and firms taking on new staff.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and employers' group the CBI found business volumes in the three months to March grew for the eighth quarter in a row.
Optimism in the sector rose for the first time in a year.
A separate survey of UK finance chiefs suggested that fears of a UK recession or a euro break-up have eased.

Recruitment Partnership have reported an increase in profits of 34% in the last financial year with demand still high for Financial Services specialists in IT and Business Change.

Pay prospects for IT staff are the highest they have been since winter 2007, reveals research by business and technology staffing company ReThink Recruitment.
Its IT directors’ survey shows that 59% of respondents expect salaries for their IT staff in the next year, compared to 47% last year, and just over a quarter (27%) for 2010.
Additionally, 43% of IT directors expect to increase headcounts over the next year, up from 36% last year.

Recruitment Partnership are pleased to announce the appointment of Sian Elsmore as a new permanent consultant to help out with heavy demand across their main markets.

The South West has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, according to new figures.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed that the region had an unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent in the three months to the end of December 2011.
The figures revealed 165,000 were unemployed in the region - 13,000 fewer than in the previous quarter.