Recruitment agenciesin the manufacturing sector would not be surprised to hear that the poor export orders have caused a sharp decline in the manufacturing sector. Orders have seemed to slow down on all fronts from Europe, US and Asia. The purchasing managers index (PMI) is representative of this data.

This information is a blow to the economy, especially as the weakness of this sector has been ever present over the last year. It would seem even a greater edge such as a weak pound has not drummed up any business.

Massive amount of backlogs of work and as well as the Queen’s Jubilee, does show that it is unlikely this index will grow much in the next quarter. This is of course a worry but as some economist pointed out that theUK’s ability to be involved in the growing global demands, will help our own economy grow.

In my view this is of course not very good especially as this was one of the key sectors highlighted as a stimulus for the economy. Maybe we can take advantage of the emerging markets but there seems to be a lot of work that needs to be done here to getUK’s manufacturing back on track.

Many recruitment agencies will be aware about the imminent closure of a British Gas call centre in Southampton. This will undoubtedly be a big blow to the workers and the local economy.

The company did make a statement about the need to reduce costs and give the customers best value for money. It was based on a full review and unfortunately they saw their Southampton office being surplus to requirements.

They have informed the workers about the situation and said there may be other opportunities in other parts of their business but understand the challenges these workers will face.

A representative of Unison said this is very worrying. British Gas has always been a significant employer in the region and their focus is making sure the workers can find other opportunities.

My opinion is that unfortunately it is very much a sign of the times, with many companies looking at where they are spending too much and really calculating the value and need for each part of their business. The main point is that these companies need to survive, so one day they can grow again, of course we will have to wait and see if that comes to fruition.

Recruitment agencies should have it easy in finding skilled and ready to work candidates at the moment, not according to Cambridge Consultants that develop products for many international blue chip companies and government agencies.

I thought it was quite different to hear that Cambridge Consultants, the makers of the round tea bag are struggling to find scientists and engineers to employ to keep up with their growing demand. Human resources director Alison Hughes said they have dozens of vacancies, ranging from graduates to senior consultants. The problem is we cannot find these skilled staff.

There plan was to double the size of its business over the next 4 years, which has seen this company start 50 years ago by 3 Cambridge university graduates to currently employing 300 staff. Cambridge Consultants is one of many companies that are looking for this skilled work force and so evidently, even in a tough economic climate, being in the right industry and having the right skills could well mean you are still very much sought after.

A follow up story to a previous post that spoke about the collapse of the retailer `Game`,  has  now been finally sold to an investment firm.

Opcapita are now the new owners and by doing so have saved 3,200 jobs, it is thought that Opcapita paid £1 for the business. Spokes person Henry Jackson, said that they strongly believe there is a place on the high street for video gaming specialist and Game is the leading brand in a £2.8 billion UK market.

It will be a long road ahead, with losses of around £18 million, a huge rent bill and wages bill that still need to be address but the investment firm that also bought struggling retailer Comet for £2 is up for the challenge and is assembly a team to tackle the £85 million debt the company currently has.

To me it seems very shrewd business, an almost Warren Buffet approach to investing, buying ailing companies that have a good strong brand and then turning them around. The focus is always if there is a genuine brand and in relation to this industry, retailer Game, is the largest brand in the UK. I do believe managed correctly and brought in line with today’s technology, then this company can become great again, of course only time will tell.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) have announced that the cutbacks in the public spending will result in 14% of jobs being axed, which will also mean that only 16.7% of the jobs in the UK will be public sector compared to a peak of 20%.

The result of all this is that by 2017 we expect 880,000 public sector workers to have lost their jobs. This totally wipes out the rise in public sector workers over the period between 1999 and 2009 and takes the workforce to an all time low.

This therefore means that there is a huge dependency on the private sector to create more jobs, something that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) fully expect to happen and it is this job creation that will more than compensate for the public sector downsizing. However it is quite a risk and with such a shift in the workforce we are yet to see the consequences for such an action.

I do feel that recruitment agencies will play a pivotal role in all this, ensuring that employers that are hiring have their requirements met quickly so that the company continue its growth plan and hopefully requiring even more staff.

Recruitment agencies would have been pleased to hear Jaguar Land Rover announcing it is creating 1000 new jobs at its Halewood factory on Merseyside.

The creation of jobs is to cope with their global demand and will take the total number of employees at Halewood to 4,500. That is 3 times more staff there than three years ago, showing massive strength in UK car manufacturing.

The good news does not stop there with JLR’s human resources director claiming even more jobs could be created in the near future. It does seem to show with the right investment and business plan, the UK can be a good place for manufacturing.

The latest figures from UK trade show record level of exporting to countries outside of the EU, mainly US and China. There is also an increasing number of need for these vehicles in emerging markets as their economies continue to grow. Brazil demonstrated this recently by overtaking the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy.

Jaguar’s news can only help strengthen the UK’s position and hopefully shows companies do see value in setting up shop in the UK. I hope George Osborne encourages this kind of economic activity and finds way to stimulate the economy even more.

Retail recruitment agencies may be hearing about the imminent collapse of the computer games retailer Game.

With losses expected in the region of £18 million for the year, it is clear the retailer is struggling and with 600 stores in the UK the collapse could affect up to 10,000 employees. If it is not sold in time to handle its large rent bill.

The main problem has been of course lack of sales with no new consoles and a squeeze in people’s spending. However I think foresight with the music industry can be used to relate to the gaming industry, in that many people stopped buying music from shops such as HMV as soon as you were able to stream it over the internet.

Gamers will know that you can stream games and it will only become a more popular medium in obtaining the latest games. Therefore in my opinion this shows again the way the future is shaping and unfortunately certain high street stores are affected by new technology.

The retailer even had suppliers stop sending them the latest games such as Mass Effect 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken.

It will be a hard task to sell the company at such short noticed and even harder to predict the future of its employees. A sorry end to one of the largest games retailer’s.

Global recruitment consultancy placed 55^th in annual awards and wins a 3* accreditation

29 February, London: Aspire Global Network have been awarded a 3* accreditation and 55^th position in the 100 Best Small Companies To Work For 2012.

The results showed that 91% of employees at the specialist media recruitment agency say that their managers talk openly and honestly with them, placing them 15^th overall in this category. Additionally, 90% of staff said that colleagues really care about each other.
Judges also commented on the career development programme, Aspire, that is considered so important that bosses named the company after it. Aspire is the name of a system of six-monthly appraisals for staff, where they are encouraged to set clear targets to climb the ladder at Aspire Global Network.

Other benefits for staff include a flexible 8 hour day, which is unusual within the recruitment industry, and has resulted in 70% of staff being happy with their work/life balance. Aspire Global Network also has a ‘Ministry of Fun’ committee, which spends more than £20,000 annually on staff entertainment.

Paul Farrer, Chairman, says that people are always the greatest asset of a recruitment agency.

He said ‘We may be in the business of recruitment, but we are very focussed on our own retention. We have working parties of employees tasked with continually improving our working life’ he says. ‘To be the best ranked in our specialist sector means that we can really show people we are a destination employer for all aspiring recruitment consultants’.

Many recruitment agencies will be waiting in anticipation for Chancellor George Osborne budget speech next month.

Labour’s Ed Ball stated that tax cuts are the best short-term route to take, even temporarily reducing VAT, although this may be a bit to much as that would involve Osborne admitting it was wrong to increase VAT in the first place. There was also noise’s made to increase personal allowance to over £10,000 or increase tax credits.

David Davies a Tory backbencher argued that capital gains tax and top rate of income tax should be cut.

Clegg has made it known that he would like personal tax allowance raised but did not add by how much and how this would be funded but did stipulate that it would have to be funded rather than borrowed.

The fact that it is a coalition government has meant that although Clegg and Danny Alexander have come out and stated their budget ambition, they are now in meetings with Cameron and Osborne and so those meetings are confidential.

It is apparent that the economy needs to be stimulated and how best to do this varies slightly, however further borrowing to stimulate the economy seems to be frowned upon and any measures would have to be funded. A tough month ahead for Osborne and an almost impossible task to get the UK going again, we of course all await with great anticipation.

Recruitment agencies would not have welcomed the news that the unemployment rate for the final quarter of 2011 was 8.4%, the highest level since 1995.

The actual number of people out of work rose by 48,000 over the last 3 months and is now set at 2.67m unemployed. However the unemployment rate was the slowest increase since last June, which hopefully shows some signs of improvement.

Young people still seem to be suffering the most with 1.06m 16 – 24 year olds out of work which increased by 22,000.

Some good news came in the form that the number of people working actually rose by 60,000 to 29.13m, there is slight stipulation with this fact and that is the number of part time jobs actually rose by 71,000 and so engulfs this 60,000 figure. The main reason for this would be that single mothers have been forced back into the labour market.

Overall the job market looks stagnate, with not too much change between the quarters. We really need to see some kind of recruitment drive to bolster the economy but it is obvious that we are not quite there with so many uncertainties.