Report on Jobs – October

The Report on Jobs captures original survey data which provides the most up-to-date monthly picture of recruitment, employment, staff availability and employee earnings trends available. There are three reports, one covering the UK as a whole, one focused specifically on the North of England and one on the South.

The Report on Jobs is a monthly publication produced by IHS Markit and sponsored by KPMG and REC.

Here are the key points from the North Report on Jobs:

• Permanent placements growth accelerates.
• Softer increase in temporary billings.
• Both permanent and temporary pay inflation eases.

Here are the key points from the South Report on Jobs:

• Marked reduction in permanent placements.
• Continued declines in candidate numbers.
• Growth in demand for staff slows.

Here are the key points from the UK Report on Jobs:

• Solid drop in permanent staff appointments, temp billings rise only slightly.
• Vacancy growth eases to a 93-month low.
• Pay continues to rise as candidate availability falls again.

James Stewart, Vice Chair at KPMG  says:

“Businesses are still waiting to hear that starting gun, and until there is some certainty around Brexit and now the election, employers continue to stall on creating vacancies and making permanent hires.

“It’s not just businesses that are being cautious, however, and over October we’ve seen job seekers become increasingly nervous about making a career change. The lucky few that do find jobs are continuing to demand higher pay as reflected in the rise in starting salaries and temp pay.

“The IT and computing sector threw caution to the wind last month as the best performer in vacancy growth. Meanwhile, the medical sector is not far behind, and we also saw a sharp increase in the demand for temp staff in this sector.”

Neil Carberry, Chief Executive at Recruitment & Employment Confederation says:

“These figures underline why this needs to be a jobs election. The labour market is strong, but permanent placements have now dropped for eight months in a row, and vacancies growth has fallen to its lowest level since January 2012. One bright spark is the temporary labour market, which continues to provide flexible work to people and businesses that need it during troubled times.

“Ending political uncertainty and getting companies hiring again is vital – but we must also look to the long term future of work. Jobs must be front and centre during this election campaign, and we will be launching our REC manifesto for work next week. We will be urging all political parties to run on policies which support and enhance the UK’s flexible labour market – allowing businesses to create jobs, employees to build careers and the economy to grow.”

For free copies of the full reports, please get in touch or call 0333 023 0077.