April « 2009 « Go To Recruitment Employment Blog

30/04/2009

Working Time Directive opt-out agreement maintained

In March I wrote a blog European Parliament says Britain should work less, where the MEPs had voted in December to end the opt-out agreement from the maximum 48 hour working week.

It now appears due to the consistent pressure from the UK and other member states who were against such a move, have finally got there way. Talks in Brussels between MEPs, member states and the European Commission failed to agree on a solution and so the talks have now collapsed.

By preventing this opt-out agreement being banished, many sectors are now relieved, one being the healthcare sector. You may be aware from my previous post that many junior doctors work much longer than the 48 hour working week. If this opt-out option was banished this would have had severe ramifications on the level of healthcare in this country.

Davidi Yeadle, head of employment policy at EEF, The Manufacturers’ Organisation said “Retaining the opt out will help employers to manage working time so that they can respond quickly and efficiently to changing customer demands and enable employees to choose to earn more by working longer hours”

I personally felt that ending this opt-out agreement would have had a negative effect on the UK job market and I for one am pleased to see this now put to bed. I only hope that the European Parliament do not re-open this issue and allow workers and employers the freedom of using this option if required.

Filed under: healthcare sector,junior doctors,uk job market — admin @ 10:42

28/04/2009

Gumtree posts more Healthcare Jobs

The website gumtree.com had posted more than 1,500 healthcare jobs in recent weeks and over the last 6 months they have recorded a 34% increase in healthcare jobs.

Alison Soltanifar, of gumtree.com said “Most jobseekers think the job market is in a slump and are not aware of the growth in opportunities in healthcare.”

Whilst gumtree.com posted an increase in healthcare jobs, it also stated that they have had a 13% fall in job postings in the UK since January, a reflection of how the rest of the sectors are doing.

Although this is good news for the healthcare sector, I do believe that these figures could be interpreted differently. It is obvious that many recruitment agencies are moving across to the healthcare sector which by doing so would naturally increase the number of jobs in healthcare on these job boards. They may be in fact no more jobs than before just more agencies posting them.

Filed under: healthcare jobs,healthcare sector — admin @ 09:02

23/04/2009

Graduate Recruitment show could be cancelled?

The National Graduate Recruitment Exhibition which is expected to be held at The Barbican in London on the 29th and 30th May, has yet to be confirmed by the organiser’s.

London based Venture Marketing Group who are in charge of organising the Graduate Recruitment Exhibition have yet to send confirmation to The Barbican and a spokeswoman from The Barbican said by now they would have expected payment.

There are also doubts that the Birmingham version of this event on the 5th and 6th of June may not go ahead as well, with the NEC Group claiming they have not received confirmation that Venture Marketing Group want to go ahead.

A spokeswoman for Venture Marketing Group confirmed that this is the case, but declined to give a reason.

Filed under: Graduate Recruitment — admin @ 10:32

21/04/2009

CEBR raises hope in the City

The Centre of Economics and Business Research announced that the UK is over the worst of the recession and there is now stability appearing in City firms.

Initially the CEBR forecasted that 34,000 wholesale finance jobs will be lost in 2009, however they have now changed there forecast to 29,000.

Douglas McWilliams, chief executive at the CEBR, says “The long-term outlook for the City of London remains in the balance. Clearly there is a need for action to improve incentive payment structures and discourage overly risky behaviour in the future. However, if the regulatory response is too wide ranging and constrictive the government risks the long-term growth of the City”

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), stated that they expected the green shoots of recovery next year.

City recruitment agencies are talking about a slight increase in number of vacancies they are trying to fill, however they still say the number of vacancies is a long way off what it used to be.

Let’s hope the CEBR and CBI are correct and we are over the worst of this recession.

Filed under: city recruitment agencies,finance jobs — admin @ 10:19

16/04/2009

A Top Ten list you don’t want to be in

Research at the Work Foundation has shown that London is not even in the top ten affected Cities in this Country in terms of job losses. I was quite surprised by this, as what we have mainly been hearing, is that the financial sector has been hit the hardest. Yet it now appears, in terms of job losses it has hit the traditional manufacturing cities more so.

The top ten cities hit by job losses:

Birmingham
Leeds
Glasgow
Sheffield
Hull
Manchester
Bradford
Kirklees
Liverpool
Bristol

What you will notice is that it is the middle to northern parts of the UK that have been affected most. A reason for this is because manufacturing had not yet recovered from the last recession and so this economic crisis has crimpled the UK motor industry.

Birmingham the most affected and number 1 on this list, shows 7.3% claim jobseeker’s allowance. That is roughly 12,383 signing on, up from 5.3% last year. This is mainly due to Birmingham having a large motor presence, such as Jaguar Land Rover, which have made significant cut backs and numerous other companies have cut back on production as well. Unite, the biggest Union in the UK has organised a march in Birmingham to criticise the government lack of help in the automotive industry.

Naomi Clayton, senior researcher at the Work Foundation stated that she hoped the forthcoming budget will focus more on the large cities, such as Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, that can help instigate a recovery in the UK.

Filed under: job losses — admin @ 09:55

09/04/2009

Recruitment Industry Survey

The Reports on Job is a monthly publication sponsored by the REC and KPMG LLP. The report started 11 years ago and analyses recruitment, employment, staff availability and earning trends.

Staff Appointments

Recruitment agencies were asked to report on the number of permanent jobs filled each month and the amount billed from placing temporary or contract positions.

To understand the index, 50 represent no change, above that shows growth, below that a decline. The March index shows that Permanent recruitment is at 38.4 and Temporary recruitment is at 40.6.

The fact that both have declined further is no surprise, however if there is a positive to be taken from the figures is that it has been its weakest decline in 6 months for both Perms and Temps, meaning the market might be levelling out.

Vacancies

This part of the report asks recruitment agencies if the demand for staff has changed.

Again using the same index scale, Permanent staff vacancies was indexed at 29.7 and for Temporary vacancies indexed at 34.7.

Although again this shows a decline in vacancies in March, Permanent vacancies was up from February’s record low 27.6 and the highest it has been in 4 months and Temps was also at it’s highest in 4 months.

Demand for Staff by Sector

Recruitment agencies were asked to compare their demand for staff in different sectors.

For both Perms and Temps the only sector that showed growth was Nursing/ Medical/ Care. This sector was indexed at 56.4 for Perms and 52.4 for Temps. All other sectors showed that demand had fallen.

Not much of a surprise here, in fact the demand for staff in Nursing/ Medical/ Care slightly rose from March 2008.

Staff Availability

Recruitment agencies were asked to report on the amount of available Job seekers they have compared to previous months.

This is no surprise, Permanent available staff was indexed at 80.4 and Temporary available staff was indexed at 83.5.

This represents massive growth in job seekers and of course with unemployment rising, these figures are expected to continue to show growth.

Pay Pressures

This part of the report tracks average salaries of Permanent placements and average hourly rates for Temporary and Contract placements.

Permanent salaries was indexed at 39.7 and Temporary salaries was indexed at 39.4.

These indexes represent or are close to their lowest levels, implying that job seekers that are getting work are prepared to take a pay cut to be in work.

These are the main findings from the report and of course can be taken with mixed views. There is obviously a decline in the job market in general and the amount of job seekers has increased dramatically. If there is a positive to be taken from this is that the rate of deterioration has been reduced.

Kevin Green, Chief Executive of the REC, says

“These figures are an improvement on the last six months. They indicate the pace of deterioration in the jobs market is easing and this rings true with what recruitment businesses are seeing on the ground. However, we anticipate that we have not yet reached the bottom. With unemployment still set to increase over the coming months, we are calling on the government to ensure that this month’s budget is focused on retaining and creating jobs. To this end, we are writing to the Chancellor today with our five point plan to jump start the jobs market.”

Filed under: job seekers,job vacancies,recruitment agencies — admin @ 11:48

07/04/2009

Michael Page announce drop in profits

Michael Page the international recruitment company that has 150 offices operating in 28 countries has reported its first quarter profits, which have fallen from £140.3m to £95m. In the UK this was a 38% drop in gross profit from £47.1m to £28.9m.

Chief Executive Steve Ingham said “The impact of the financial crisis is now evident in virtually every market and discipline in which we operate, albeit to varying degrees”.

In the UK Michael Page still generated year on year growth in its Public Sector activities and some very niche disciplines in property and construction, however its Finance and Accounting divisions saw a drop of 37% and other areas fell by as much as 42%.

Analyst looking at Michael Page shares issued sell notes which pushed their share price down to as low as 205p, but they came back slightly to 210.75p a drop of 5.5p on the day. This slight revival was due to speculation that Adecco, which has had a management change were about to renew their interest in Michael Page and put a new offer on the table.

I suppose it is no surprise that recruitment agencies concentrating in Finance and Accounting will feel the effect of the recession more than other agencies, but it is how these agencies cope in these troubled times and although Michael Page have reduced their head count by 809 to 4,134, no further reductions in head count are planned and they will reduce their costs in other parts of their business to counter act the drop in revenue.

Filed under: public sector,recruitment agencies — admin @ 16:03

03/04/2009

Yes we won, but a third of you have to go

The extraordinary scenes over last weekend in Formula 1 showed how this global recession is affecting everyone. Honda who have pulled out of Formula 1 racing due to the expenses involved, in 2008 they spent £210 million, were taken over by Brawn GP a company created in the wake of Honda’s withdrawal.

However Brawn GP a privately owned company operates on a much smaller budget and cannot afford to have 700 staff that they inherited from Honda. This meant that soon after Brawn GP finished 1st and 2nd in the Australian Grand Prix, chief executive Nick Fry announced that a third of there staff will be made redundant, around 270 jobs.

Max Mosley president of the FIA has stressed for some time that F1 teams need to start trimming their costs and that with new regulations put into to place, such as less available testing times, means that Brawn GP may not be the only F1 team cutting jobs.

However Brawn GP believe they are on to a winner, with their cars performing best in pre-season, coming 1st and 2nd in Melbourne and Virgin becoming their 1st sponsors. Almost having the attitude of one step back, 2 steps forward, something most companies are hoping to achieve over the coming years.

Filed under: jobs — admin @ 15:30

01/04/2009

Green Jobs Await

With the continued amount of jobs cuts being made almost on a daily basis, Greenpeace feel they have a solution that can create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Greenpeace have suggested that the government should spend £5 billion a year on making buildings and homes energy efficient. They estimate that by doing this, it will create 55,000 direct jobs and hundreds of thousands indirect jobs.

It seems that in time when there are so many looking for work, it could be an ideal time to take advantage of the resources at hand and really look to push forward an energy efficient Country. The government needs to look at initiatives to do this, such as subsidising loans to carry out the work and creating skilled labour for the anticipated workload, but the fact that the government reluctance to focus more on this area is shown by their lack of funding, just 0.6% of the government’s financial package aimed at stimulating the economy. This raises real questions if we will ever truly tackle the issues that Greenpeace put forward.

Nick Clegg leader of the Liberal Democrat believes that by insulating schools, hospitals and homes will create thousands of jobs and save institutions thousands of pounds.

Is it time for the government to look at the green issues as a means of stimulating the economy? I believe so, it makes sense but government and sense doesn’t always go hand in hand.

Filed under: jobs — admin @ 08:49