Many recruitment agencies would be getting phone calls this week, with many employers requiring temps. It would be no surprise to hear that many Britons have strategically taking of 3 working days this week to ensure they get an 11 day holiday.

However although many of these holidays were planned for, the problem arises with the fact that Britain is considered to be the `Sicknote` capital of the world, with many employees calling in sick these next few days. No doubt this will cause much disruption and it is estimated that these holidays will cost the economy up to £30billion.

There is some economic good news though from all this and that is the extended holiday period has meant a huge uplift for many travel firms as many have experienced surge in sales. With Tui up 22% compared to last year and Ryanair up 10%, meaning many tourism recruitment agencies would pleased to hear this. There was also good news for retail recruitment agencies with many high street stores recording more sales over the Easter weekend compared to last year.

Recruitment agencies are concerned about the state of the economy today as uncertainty kicks in with the fall of the US markets.

S&P revised its outlook for the U.S. to `negative` after China moved to reduce its liquidity. There was also an added concern with Greece having to renegotiate the terms of its public debt, however Greek officials deny this.

The overall sentiment is that the global economy is becoming increasingly unstable and that any further surprises could have huge ramifications. Companies are therefore being more cautious and this has been shown by British companies cutting there marketing budgets in the first quarter of 2011 for the second consecutive quarter.

There is definitely an underlying current of uncertainty in the market and recruitment agencies are probably waiting in the wings to see how it affects the job market. Although at present there would not be to much change you can’t help but think of the saying `The straw that broke the Camel’s back` and hope the straw never arises…

Healthcare recruitment agencies especially nurses recruitment agencies have shown a marked improvement in their profits since the government has reduced spending in the NHS.

 Ambition 24, Team 24 and Mayday healthcare have all shown huge increases, with Ambition having profits of £10.4million compared to £733,000 in 2008, Team 24 showed £4.8m compared to £1.3m last year and Mayday Healthcare posted £6million profits in 2010.

What this shows is that the shake up within the NHS could have an opposite effect with job losses accumulating to 50,000 jobs but having to maintain their services by using these recruitment agencies.

I believe this shows that the government course of action, although understandable when looking at spend levels within the NHS, will have many teething problems that many could not predict. I only hope in the midst of these reforms services and people do not suffer as the main and only point to this is that we as a country provide a stable but good National Health Services.