News

The report found that the number of people placed in jobs by recruitment consultancies increased ‘at a strong and accelerated pace’ and recruitment consultants indicated a fall in the availability of workers to fill job vacancies.

 

The increase in temporary billing was broad-based across the English regions, with the strongest increases seen in the North and the South.
In the public sector, demand for temporary workers rose at the fastest pace so far this year, whereas public sector demand for permanent staff declined.

 

 

In the private sector, demand for both permanent and temporary staff strengthened in July, with the latest expansion the sharpest since records began in December 2011.

 

 

Nursing/Medical/Care saw the fastest growth in levels of demand for temporary workers, followed by Construction. Accounting/Finance saw the slowest growth.

 

Rates of pay for temporary workers also rose at the strongest pace in six years.

 

 

In response to the report, REC chief executive Kevin Green said: ‘The jobs market continues to skyrocket with permanent employment and temporary placements at three and two year highs, and vacancy growth accelerating to a six year high. A combination of confidence returning to the UK economy and higher employer demand have contributed to this impressive set of figures.’

 

 

He also highlighted that ‘hourly rates for temp workers increased at the strongest rate since January 2008.’

 

 

Commenting on the latest figures, Bernard Brown, Partner and Head of Business Services at KPMG described the jobs market as ‘looking buoyant again’.

 

 

However, he warned that, if the trend continues, employers could be faced with ‘another conundrum’ as the strongest workers are likely to seek better offers.

 

 

‘For some time staff have sat tight refusing to move when job security was low.  Now the best staff will be looking for better offers so employers will need to strike a balance between recruiting new blood and retaining their best employees,’ he said.