March « 2010 « Go To Recruitment Employment Blog

31/03/2010

National Insurance increase will cost jobs

Alistair Darling finally admitted that employment agencies may be getting more job seekers next year when the controversial plan to increase National Insurance by 1p comes into affect next April.

Under a barrage of questioning from shadow chancellor George Osborne, Alistair Darling, said that he admits that jobs will be lost due to this change but added it will be manageable.

In a TV debate between Darling and Osborne, Osborne stated that although the government had identified and wasted £11 billion and instead of focusing and stopping this kind of waste, the actions of the government is to tax every single person more by increasing National Insurance. Osborne went on to say not only is this wrong but when we are trying to recover and encourage more jobs it seems ludicrous to squeeze everyone’s income.

The news of the 1p increase, which means basically that now for every pound you earn, you will pay 12p instead of 11p to the government. Then there is also a change for the employers as well, with an increase from 12.8% to 13.8%, this will cost businesses billions. This has not been met by much support and we will have to see how business and employees can cope with this kind of added spending.

From my point of view, I think there is a fine line of acceptable increases and find that this kind of action as a bit to broad ranging and penalising, not forgetting companies with many employees will suffer greatly with added pressure of paying more National Insurance and when we are hoping that companies are just now finding their feet, this Employers NI increase could only be a set back for them.

Filed under: employment agencies — admin @ 10:28

24/03/2010

Budget 2010: We are going to recover!!

This is the message from the Chancellor, who said we are right on track for the economy to grow 3% to 3.5% next year, with the economy expected to grow about 1% to 1.5% this year.

Inflation is already rising but Alistair Darling said he expected this to reduce to the expected 2% increase by the end of the year, with interest rates to remain low and stable.

Government borrowing has been cut as a direct result of obtaining revenue from bank bonuses and should result in debt being further reduced by £1 billion by 2013/14, much earlier than previously thought.

It is no surprise that David Cameron view of the Budget was quite different, even saying it brings “debt, waste and taxes”. He also added that the budget will stifle the private sector, with increased taxes on business.

I’m sure all the experts are now analysing the budget and how it will affect us all. Recruitment agencies will focus on the fact that there is a growing economy and that the need for more staff is slowly but surely creeping in.

Filed under: recruitment agencies — admin @ 16:34

18/03/2010

Nissan jobs created in Sunderland

Motoring recruitment agencies received a bit of good news, with the announcement that Nissan is to produce its electric vehicle in Sunderland.

The aim is to have 50,000 Nissan Leaf hatchbacks coming out of production per year, with the cars run entirely on lithium-ion batteries. It will be the worlds first affordable, zero emission car. Nissan have also said that more jobs would be created for the production of the car batteries that is required and this could add an additional 350 jobs.

Lord Mandelson, secretary for trade and industry said that this is a massive vote of confidence, that the Japanese company have decided to produce the car in the UK and he hopes that this will make the UK a world leader in ultra-low carbon vehicles.

Filed under: Motoring Recruitment Agencies — admin @ 14:52

16/03/2010

Asda backs its agency staff

Recruitment agencies that supply Asda staff would be delighted with the news announced recently, that ahead of the changes that are occurring from the European directive that comes into effect next year, Asda will increase its pay to temps to be in line with its permanent staff.

The change will improve 6000 agency workers pay and will stop the two-tired labour system that was previously introduced. The union Unite attacked this system saying it was unfair and discriminates against agency workers, with having income reduced by up £1 an hour, by being a temp.

Unite are of course very happy with the new change and also the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, were at hand to comment, by saying that these changes reflect the importance of maintaining a flexible workforce by using agency staff and this will only promote how companies see their contribution.

Retail employment agencies have also taken to the news in a positive way, as it will now allow them the opportunity to promote being an agency worker.

Filed under: recruitment agencies,retail employment agencies — admin @ 18:35

11/03/2010

Toyota cut jobs in Deeside

Recruitment agencies have been alerted that up to 150 employees from Toyota engine plant near Chester will lose there job. That is 750 jobs’ loses in the UK by the car manufacturer, who are still trying to cope with the recession.

The decision to cut further jobs and add extra measures such as pay freezes and reduced hours, is action that according to Toyota chiefs had to be taken to combat the difficult market they are operating in. Tony Walker, deputy manager of Toyota, explained how important 2010 is for Toyota, which had a 40% drop in sales in 2009. The market has seen a resurgence this year with a 65% upturn in the Motor Industry but unsure how this has benefited Toyota and of course with their recent bad press of car recalls, they will have to see how sales will plan out this year.

For those who have lost their jobs they could of course speak to Motoring and Automotive Recruitment Agencies, which should have more knowledge of what is going on in the market. It therefore seems that although there are signs of an upturn in 2010, the motor industry will play out this year cautiously.

Filed under: Motoring Recruitment Agencies,recruitment agencies — admin @ 13:29

09/03/2010

It is good to work for a Recruitment Agency

Seven recruitment agencies were in the Sunday’s Times `100 Best Companies to Work For 2010` and eight recruitment agencies were in Sunday’s Times `100 Best Small Company to Work For 2010`.

Recruitment agencies in 100 Best Companies to work for 2010:

Office Angels – ranked 4th
Pertemps People Development Group – ranked 19th
Ingeus – ranked 38th
Pulse – ranked 46th
Ranstad – ranked 73rd
Pertemps Recruitment Partnership – ranked 81st

Recruitment agencies in 100 Best Small Companies to Work for 2010-03-09

Practicus – ranked 13th
Origin HR Consulting – ranked 28th
GCS – ranked 32nd
Penta Consulting – ranked 33rd
Taskmaster Resources – ranked 48th
Red Commerce – ranked 53rd
Portfolio Payroll – ranked 59th
Medicare First – ranked 84th

If you put this in context of what has gone on with the economy and the recruitment market, this is fantastic news and all I can do is congratulate each one of these agencies that have made the list. It is good to hear that so many employees enjoy working in this industry and that employers put a lot of effort to not just maintaining their staff but to encourage them to enjoy their work.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 16:47

04/03/2010

Report for Recruitment Agencies

The REC in conjunction with the KPMG announced there findings for February 2010 and they made for interesting reading. Recruitment agencies would be pleased to here that permanent staff placements increased last month making this its strongest increase since July 2007.

The Temping market showed a slight increase in the amount being billed, although this increase was its slowest for 3 months.

Overall the market looks to be growing quite healthily and IT recruitment agencies would be pleased to hear this area is showing particularly strong growth. The only `but` in all this is the impending slow down of the public sector. Many healthcare recruitment agencies and public sector recruitment agencies, realise whilst in the recession money was being pumped into public sector, this will change and radical reforms will have to occur for costs to be reduced, how and when this will occur is of course unknown but there is no escaping the fact that this will have to happen at some point.

Filed under: healthcare recruitment agencies,IT recruitment agencies,public sector recruitment agencies,recruitment agencies — admin @ 13:21