For all businesses, the summer is traditionally a slow time. People go on holiday and take time off, less business gets done and it’s a time to take stock of where you are and plan your strategy for the second half of the year.

We’re the same, save for one exception. We’re getting busier and it’s down to two fundamental elements. Our service offering to clients and candidates is the foundation stone upon which our entire business model is built and also, theUKlabour market is on the rise.

As members of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), we actively contribute to a detailed monthly analysis of how the recruitment industry is performing so we thought we’d pass on some of the key points to you.

Bernard Brown, Partner and Head of Business Services at KPMG said ‘the indications are that the economy is getting stronger. Confidence is certainly evident amongst employers with many who conserved cash reserves for the last few years are now beginning to invest in people and as the search for talent is stepped up, the jobs market is looking buoyant again.’

He continues ‘high levels of demand for staff were signalled across every sector we analysed and the same can be said across each region of the UK. In a sign of the surge in confidence the latest figures also represent the sharpest increase in permanent placements for more than three years and the biggest growth in demand for six.’

This is great news of course, but it does put the onus back onto the candidate to develop or improve existing skills in response to what the market is actively looking for.

In addition, for the last half-decade there has been a mantra amongst employees which essentially says ‘I have a job in an uncertain economic climate so I’m not going to rock the boat and look elsewhere. I’m going to stay where I am, work hard and ride out the storm.’ Now, that tide is also turning with staff seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and they are looking for better offers elsewhere (or improved terms in-house) so employers now need to pay as much attention to employee retention as they do to their recruitment.

The key points of the report are as follows –

• Permanent placements have increased at their sharpest rate since March 2010
• Overall job vacancies increased at their strongest rate in six years
• The rate of inflation of permanent staff salaries is as high as it’s been for two years
• Temp pay rose at the fastest rates since January 2008
• The industries demanding the highest numbers of permanent staff are Engineering, IT & Computing and Executive positions

Salaries are going up, the demand for skilled talent is going up and there are more advertised jobs than there has been for years.

This really is great news for us and here at Asset Resourcing we will simply continue to do what we do – source outstanding candidates for exciting careers in great companies in the world of IT & New Media, Accountancy & Finance, Sales & Marketing and Admin & Clerical.

If you need any further information on the current state of the UK labour market, or you want to talk to us about any aspect of the recruitment process both client and candidate-side, don’t hesitate to contact us, it’s what we’re here for.

Also, the football season’s back! Is this the season Ben’s belovedSheffieldWednesday make it back into the hallowed Premier League? No? We don’t think so either.

Enjoy what’s left of the summer and we’ll see you next month!

Ben Sweeting & Michelle Scott
Directors, Asset Resourcing