Unemployment has steadily become far less of an issue in the UK’s push for economic recovery, with employment rates steadily rising on a quarterly basis.
James Dyson claims he is finding it difficult to recruit qualified engineers
However, industry experts were concerned that the steep increases in workers finding employment in the latter part of 2013 were seasonal distortions, with businesses in the retail industry in particular taking on temporary staff to cover the busy Christmas period.
Fortunately, it appears that these fears may well have been unfounded as the pace of permanent hiring accelerated once more in December.
The number of workers being placed in permanent roles hit a four year high last month, with the monthly Report on Jobs commissioned jointly by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG giving a reading of 64.6 on permanent positions – up from 59.3 in November.
Although the report, which collates data provided by more than 400 recruitment firms in order to assess trends within the labour market, did show a significant increase in the number of temporary roles gained by UK workers, this tends to be the case around Christmas and so does not hint towards a contraction in long-term employment availability.
In large part, the increases in permanent roles seen in the past few months stems from a boost in business confidence which has seen UK employers beginning to hire in earnest once more.
As a result, demand levels for staff also remained close to the 15 year high seen in November – something which, according to head of business services at KPMG Bernard Brown, could prove troublesome for employers in the near future.
He says; “The recovery is clearly gaining momentum.
“Some uncertainty still remains because the availability of staff to fill roles has seen a steep fall.
“The risk is that if it continues employers who are desperate to fill a gap could become stretched beyond their means at the same time as over-inflating the market by offering high salaries just to tempt employees to move.”
Indeed, a growing number of employers have become concerned that the pool of skilled UK workers will not be large enough to satisfy demand when economic recovery truly sets in and growth becomes the key priority.
Last year, James Dyson claimed that his firm struggled to find qualified engineers to assist in long-term growth plans, triggering fears regarding the UK’s educational merit in training highly skilled workers.
Yet according to head of policy at the REC, Kate Shoesmith, it is not only engineering firms which are struggling to source workers with the right skill set for their industry.
She says; “Growing confidence means more and more employers are willing to invest in their workforce and take on more people.
“The real concern now is the mismatch between demand and supply with recruiters reporting that they can’t source suitable candidates for vacancies in a whole range of sectors.
“Companies want to hire more salespeople, accountants and business development staff to help their enterprises grow, but can’t find people with the right skills to take the jobs.”
Do you think the UK needs to invest more in training which gives unemployed people the opportunity to develop their skills in certain areas where demand is high?
