Industry & Company News

The latest KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs survey revealed a renewed drop in permanent staff appointments in October, as rising COVID-19 case numbers weighed heavily on recruitment plans. Greater uncertainty over the outlook meanwhile drove a further marked rise in temp billings. However, overall demand for staff fell modestly, driven by a renewed fall in permanent vacancies. Widespread reports of redundancies, and fears over current job security, fuelled a further sharp rise in candidate availability. Increased labour supply, and reduced client budgets, contributed to steeper falls in starting pay for both permanent and temporary workers.

My pledge as the new REC chair - by Sarah Thewlis - Managing Director of Thewlis Graham Associates. Read the full blog within.

The latest Jobs Recovery Tracker reveals that there were 1.36 million active job adverts in the UK in the first week of November. This the first time that level has been reached since early March. However, the recovery has not been evenly distributed across the different regions and sectors of the UK. North-west England and Wales lead the way, while London is lagging behind. And while roles in construction, logistics and food and drink have recovered strongly, hospitality and leisure remain at significantly lower levels than in March.

Employer confidence in making hiring and investment decisions returned to negative territory in August–October, dropping by five percentage points from the previous rolling quarter’s net neutral position to net: -5. Business confidence in the wider economy also further deteriorated in October, falling from net: -44 in July–September to net: -49 this quarter.