Growth in permanent placements reached a one-year high, though candidate shortages persist

Report on Jobs February 2017

•    Permanent job placements increase at the quickest pace in one year. 
•    Contract / Temporary billings still growing, but softens to a four-month low.
•    Demand for staff reaches an 18-month peak.

With Permanent placements rising at 12 month high, UK businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit staff. According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Report on Jobs, growth in permanent placements picked up from January’s recent low to reach a one-year high in February 2017. In contrast, contract/temporary billings increased at the softest pace in four months.

Overall, the demand for staff rose at the quickest rate in one-and-a-half years, with both permanent and contract / temporary workers seeing faster increases. The availability of staff to fill job vacancies declined sharply in February with both permanent and temporary candidate supply deteriorating to a greater extent than the start of 2017. This has led to companies offering higher starting salaries, which have increased at the quickest pace since March 2016.

The greatest rise in demand for permanent roles was seen within Technical and Engineering jobs with IT/Computing jobs next. Other permanent roles in short supply included accountancy and finance jobs, and senior management and executive jobs.

Employment data from the Government’s Tier 2 Shortage Occupation List details the professions that are high in demand in the UK, with the majority being engineering and high technology biased roles, including:

•    Mechanical Engineers in the Aerospace sector
•    Electrical Engineers in the electricity transmission and distribution industry including Power System Engineers and Control Engineers
•    Production and Process Engineers in the Manufacturing sector
•    Planning and Quality Control Engineers
•    Chief Engineer and Technical Director roles

Ricky Wilcocks, Redline Group Key Accounts Manager comments on the report: “This is a great time for people to change careers and move jobs, with hirers offering increased salaries to secure the available talent. With stagnating pay growth and rising inflation, changing jobs has become a more attractive option for those who seek a better salary. Redline continue to advise clients to access additional support and train the hiring managers by understanding why Candidates decline job offers, whilst reviewing their salary and benefits packages regularly. They often don’t factor in that it’s about attracting someone out of a role to theirs, not just what the ‘going rate’ is.  This is likely to get worse in the short term."

For more information on Redline Group's Technical and Engineering Jobs, please contact Ricky Wilcocks, Redline Key Accounts Manager on +44 (01582) 878810 or email RWilcocks@RedlineGroup.com.