Category Archives: manufacturing recruitment agencies

Manufacturing recruitment agencies would be pleased to hear that UK’s smaller manufacturers have shown an increase in employee numbers for the first time in 2 years.

The CBI’s report also showed that 31% of manufacturers expect production to increase in the coming months compared to 12% of manufacturers who believe they will need to reduce. These stats are definitely an improvement and shows that manufacturers in general are positive about the outlook.

It was not all good news though, with the CBI quick to point out that there are certain challenges, such as profit margins being reduced as costs rise. There are also hurdles to overcome when looking to finance any expansion requirements with manufacturers reluctant to use Banks they look to get credit through other financial vehicles.

In general this is a positive sign for the economy and is in line with the UK economy rising in its last quarter. However I do have a lingering thought that much of this expansion was before the coalition government made such drastic fiscal changes and as of yet I’m not convinced that this has yet been represented in the economy.

A report compiled by analysts at Civitas has worried manufacturing recruitment agencies by saying 1000’s of manufacturing jobs could be threatened over the coming years. 

The threat stems from the burden of Green Energy policies that have been introduced to satisfy the European Union. Energy bills have already increased by 21% and this figure could rise to as much as 70% by 2020. The EU targets are set at 15% of the country’s energy must be via clean sources by 2020 and that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 34% by the same date.

The report outlines that the costs involved in turning electrical intensive manufacturing to a more greener state, could prove to be crippling and it will be no surprise when these manufacturers decide to relocate overseas. Across the whole industry this could put 250,000 jobs at risk over the next 10 years.

In my view this is a hard balancing act Britain has to of course be seen to help the environment and cannot be blamed if there are higher electricity bills doing so. However maybe the government could act on other measures to counter act these costs, in the precarious state our economy is in at the moment I for one would be eager to keep as many companies happy with being set up in the UK and not put these jobs at risk.