June « 2011 « Go To Recruitment Employment Blog

27/06/2011

Lincolnshire in job scare

Recruitment agencies in Lincolnshire are bracing themselves for tougher times as a report from the Lincolnshire Research Observatory identifies that potentially 8,000 jobs may be lost in the region by 2015.

There is an estimated 4,000 public jobs at threat and 3,800 private sector jobs. The report outlines that the business services and construction industries will be the worst hit, with up to 2,000 jobs going in these areas. The report then explains this is due to a knock on affect, due to decreases in public spending affecting construction with a 7.1% drop in workforce expected by 2015.

Although the report does paint a negative picture it is a far cry from the 20% drop in construction work force in 2009. This also understates that one of the main reason Lincolnshire is being so affected is because they are losing many of their contracts to larger companies outside of the region, who bring in there own workforce.

Filed under: recruitment agencies — Goto @ 10:58

20/06/2011

UK Weakening Economy

Recruitment agencies are hoping that the weakening economy is only a short term blip as the country tries to stimulate growth and jobs.

Ed Balls, Labour’s Party Treasury Affairs spokesman, has stated that the budget deficit will be greater than previously expected. With consumer confidence in decline and fewer people paying tax (many out of work) this all results into a weakened economy.

One of the main reasons given to this decline by Ed Ball is the rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% in January 2011. This change was in his view was not necessary and in fact pushed inflation up and made it harder for the Bank of England to increase interest rates.

The government is also under fire at the moment from the Unions, citing changes to policies especially Pensions as a reason why Strike Action is being mentioned. The government is of course blaming Labour for previous policies that have dragged the economy into this state and George Osborne claims to only sort out the mess they left behind.

In my view there is a fine line of what is correct and what is not, the idea that Labour are imposing is not to take so much tax and try to stimulate the economy more so by doing this, seems reasonable but the reality is that even if they were in charge there would still need to be a focus on reducing debt in this country.

Filed under: recruitment agencies — Goto @ 11:13

13/06/2011

NHS reforms halted

A time-out has been called by David Cameron on the NHS reforms that have been put into place. Healthcare recruitment agencies will eagerly await the actions of the coalition government on the NHS over the coming weeks, with many people not sure if we are now going to move forward with these reforms.

The Lib Dems claimed that most of their concessions have been put into place. This has of course upset many of the Tory back benches, believing this will lose Tories votes.

The main issue is the GP Consortia, a system that has abolished 2 tiers of management within the NHS and has given the power to groups of GPs that have been set up around the country. However now it is thought Hospital doctors and nurses should have more of a say within these Consortia’s and the worrying aspect is that many of these groups are unclear on what is expected of them.

David Cameron has called for an emergency meeting of all 143 Tories who joined the Commons last year; one senior MP described this meeting as a “lastminute panic meeting”

I believe we are entering into a stage of “no point of return” and as these are the kind of reforms that can make or break governments it is important that they stand united and agree this is how they want to move forward… if its is the best way, only time will tell.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Goto @ 11:26

06/06/2011

Car sales still in decline

Automotive recruitment agencies are still in a difficult market as new figures show that overall sales in May 2011 were down 1.7%, when compared to May last year.

The break down of this figure is:

Private sales: 15.3% down
Fleet sales: 11.1% up

Out of the cars that did sell, diesel cars accounted for 52% of the market.

These stats show that whilst the conventional consumer is less likely to purchase a new vehicle, especially with VAT at 20%, businesses seem to show they are more than willing to invest into new cars. This is a clear indication that companies feel that the economy is moving in the right direction and hopefully this positive outlook will eventually treacle down to private individuals.

It is also worth mentioning that although the figure was a decrease of 1.7%, this was still 2% above expectation, hopefully an indication that the car sales market is turning a corner.

Filed under: Motoring Recruitment Agencies — Goto @ 17:07