Category Archives: public sector recruitment agencies

16/07/2010

Unemployment figures set to increase

The emergency budget has come and gone and now the realisation of what effect these policies will have is setting in. For public sector recruitment agencies it does not make pleasant reading as predictions of unemployment rising to 3 million by 2012.

The forecast came from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). This is on the back of today’s unemployment figures dropping by 30,000 in the 3 months to May to 2.47m but with the expectation of substantial public Sector jobs to go, it was worked out that the economy would have to grow by 2.5% a year so that the private sector to accommodate all the job losses. The OBR predicts only a 1.2% this year and only reaching 2.5% after 2.12.

Police jobs are particularly under threat, with funding cuts that could lead up to 60,000 police officers to go by 2015. The figure was based on the Treasury warning departments that there could be as much as 40% cuts.

A separate study showed further worrying news for employment agencies, with jobs in construction, science and manufacturing at half the levels the same time last year.

It seems that with radical shake up happening across the public sector, we all have to brace ourselves for what can be a bumpy ride. If however in a few years time the finances and the operations of many public sector departments are running at similar levels but with half the costs involved then surely it will be seen as a victory for ConDem…. but that is a big if.

Filed under: employment agencies,public sector recruitment agencies — Goto @ 10:10

23/06/2010

Open for Business

As the nation was on tender hooks yesterday afternoon, the message from the Chancellor was he wanted the sign above Britain to say `Open for Business`.

George Osborne insisted that the country had to share the responsibility of the debt and that it is now time to put fiscal policies into place to reduce this debt. In a speech that I would imagine made everyone feel like we had to grow up and act like adults and maybe for the first time I looked at the budget as a collective means to sort out the finances of the country rather than how it affects me personally. I feel that yes there are hard decisions that have been made and yes every family in Britain will be proportionately worst of, but wasn’t that the idea of the emergency budget, I for one did not expect it to be a rosy speech.

Labour obviously hit back and claimed how this was going to create job loses and spiral the country into a second recession but Labour had already announced some time ago that they have plans to increase taxes to raise £21 billion, £8 billion less than what ConDem’s have just announced but still a large enough figure that would have not pleased all aspects of the economy.

Healthcare recruitment agencies and public sector recruitment agencies heard about 25% annual cuts in budget, these Whitehall departments does exclude the NHS and oversees aid. There were also some promises that education and defence will be protected by these cuts.

The largest jeering occurred when George Osborne announced an increase of VAT from 17.5% to 20%, something that retail recruitment agencies will be wary of as this will of course hit retail outlets the worst.

There were of course many other fiscal policies put into place but too many to go through here. I will say overall it is hard to argue with many of the decisions made I’m sure everyone will have a different view but the fact is we have all been told off and it is time to put money into the nation pot and if we can do this right we will come out of this recession more stronger than before. I think there is only one more point to add, let’s hope England in the World Cup lift the Nation’s mood for while.

21/06/2010

Britain ready for action

For one day only, the people of Britain will not be wondering what game is next on the World Cup but be bracing itself for one of the most important budgets of our time.

Employment agencies will be wondering how detrimental these changes will be, as will many companies and individuals. With George Osborne obviously getting the country ready for his budget speech tomorrow, with colloquialisms such as “Tough but Fair”, his £85 billion package will be across the board with the likely targets of welfare payments and freeze on public spending.

Shadow Chancellor Alistair Darling has a different view and feels that hindering the recovery will cause problems for Britain in the future, problems such as sluggish growth and borrowing in the longer term. These comments seem to fall on deaf ears with George Osborne, who is looking to cut £180 billion a year in welfare, with promises to use this money in other areas needed, such as education, defence and transport.

It is clear though that public sector recruitment agencies and healthcare recruitment agencies will have to be prudent in there planning over the coming years and make sure that there service is adaptable to the changes that will occur.

Filed under: employment agencies,healthcare recruitment agencies,public sector recruitment agencies — Goto @ 10:16

07/06/2010

Recruitment Agencies Beware

Recruitment agencies are hoping for the best now with stark warnings being made by Cameron about the state of the economy and how it is even worse than they initially thought.

With less than 2 weeks to go before the emergency budget it will be a tall order to try and reduce this 156 billion pounds deficit that exists. Cameron even went as far as saying the country should be prepared for some painful cuts and that crossing our fingers and hoping the economy sorts itself out is not the way to deal with this matter.

Public sector recruitment agencies will be most concerned about these comments, wondering what kind of cuts will be made in this area. The task of delivering the news will be by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who also added that we have to address the public sector pay bills.

Clegg also made a statement about the mistakes that have been made in the past and that they will tackle this deficit differently. There will also not allow the great north/ south divide that appeared in the 1980’s when fiscal policies almost created a sink or swim attitude in different regions of the country.

I will only say that from my point of view it is quite clear the country will hear unfavourable news on the 22^nd of June and I do not think it is a coincidence that this news is coming out during the World Cup, hoping that much of the announcement is lost in the euphoria of this competition especially as England are playing in the 23^rd of June.

Filed under: public sector recruitment agencies,recruitment agencies — Goto @ 11:16

19/04/2010

Public sector jobs at risk

Public sector recruitment agencies were stunned by the prediction of the Charted Institute of Personnel and Development. They stated that out of the 5.8 million people that work for the public sector, that as much as 10% may lose their jobs by 2015.

John Philpott, chief economic advisor for the CIPD, has said that the political parties do not really address how they will tackle UK debt problem and that in his view the public spending squeeze will be much greater than what the political parties are prepared to admit. He added that comments such as reducing spending through reduced wages and short-time working is very misleading and probably far of the mark of how the UK will cope with this deficit.

John philpott also said that he did not support the Conservative view of making immediate cuts and that this kind of action could have an adverse affect but did support the Conservative’s view of reversing the planned labour national insurance contributions increase in 2011, which was described as a `Tax on Jobs`

Employment agencies will take a cautious view of the public sector and will try to anticipate which areas the jobs will be more at risk. What is for sure though is that whoever wins the next General Election, will be judged mainly by their ability to tackle the UK’s deficit.

Filed under: employment agencies,public sector recruitment agencies — admin @ 14:26

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

19/02/2010

`Go for Growth` good for Recruitment Agencies

Gordon Brown addressed an audience today with these very words. His statement was clear in his decision to concentrate on growing the economy rather than focusing on cutting Britain’s budget deficit.

In a speech that attacked the view’s of David Cameron and cited there dislike to his own views as detrimental to the economic recovery. It is Gordon’s Brown intention to continue its fiscal policies and although this may add to the UK deficit, the strong belief is that we need to tackle this problem by growing the economy to a point where it can then cut the deficit without pushing the economy into another recession.

If you are an recruitment agency, especially public sector employment agencies, this would be deemed as good news. The idea of trying to grow the economy will mean more jobs and placements.

The only problem I envisage with this strategy is yes it is bold and seems like strong action. However as with many comments that Gordon Brown has said in the past, they are not always actually followed as they initially sounded. I await with much curiosity how we hope to keep growing as an economy, keep spending and then able to reduce this deficit.

Filed under: it recruitment agency,public sector recruitment agencies — admin @ 17:26

02/02/2010

Small to Medium Recruitment Agencies looking to win contracts

Within the public sector it is becoming more and more apparent that many organisations are turning to contracted agreements with recruitment agencies. The main reason for this is because of pressure on the public sector to spend a lot less.

Alistair Darling revealed that 30% of public sector deals will go to SMEs over the next 5 years. However SMEs face many problems when tendering for these contracts as there are many costs involved and for smaller agencies these can be quite a heavy burden.

To give you an idea of spending levels within the public sector it is roughly £175 billion. This includes Local and Central government contracts, NHS tenders, Emergency services and MOD tenders.

Procurement departments, who sole purpose is to save money and the HR department, which generally concentrates on quality of candidates submitted and service provided, combine to make sure the recruitment agencies that win the business adhere to these conditions.

I would say if you are a small to medium sized recruitment agency, it is always good to be specific to your market needs and rather than go for many tenders, decide on 1 or 2 that you deem would be of great benefit to your agency. You can see a list of public sector recruitment agencies on Gotorecruitment.co.uk.

Filed under: accountancy recruitment agencies,gotorecruitment,public sector recruitment agencies — admin @ 12:55

20/10/2009

Recruitment Agencies have been warned about supplying the Royal Mail

Recruitment Agencies have been put into an awkward position in relation to supplying the Royal Mail, as the leader of the Communication Workers Union (CWE), Billy Hayes, stressed that hiring extra staff to replace existing staff that are on strike had been outlawed.

The CWE is outraged that the Royal Mail have hired 30,000 temporary workers, although Royal Mail have claimed that the hiring of temps is not to replace any person that is on strike but to handle the backlog of undelivered post from this week’s nationwide strike.

Recruitment Agencies are concerned as they have been told by the CWE to be aware of the law, which forbids any employer or employment agencies to use staff to break a lawful dispute. This could lead to public sector recruitment agencies that are supply staff to suffer fines of up to £5,000 per worker for every day they are supplied.

Royal Mail have informed Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, that has to enforce these laws, that the extra staff is for clearing old post and not for replacing any worker. Royal Mail also explained that around Christmas time they usually hire an additional 15,000 temporary staff to handle the extra work load.

Lord Mandelson could not hide his anger with the CWU and believes’ they are obstructing the Royal Mail from a much needed modernisation, even going as far as to say this matter is `life or death` for the postal service. Mr Hayes on the other hand has said he understands there could be job loses in the industry but wants there to be a compromise.

Is there a solution? At the moment it is difficult to see where it will come from. The biggest problem may be if these strikes continue, the Royal Mail may not be able to survive and if this is the case then you could see the Royal Mail being sold to foreign investors.

Filed under: city recruitment agencies,employment agencies,public sector recruitment agencies — admin @ 10:33