The last survey data released by the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has revealed that overall placements in the recruitment industry have increased year-on-year (1% for both permanent and temporary jobs). The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed the latter stating the unemployment rate remained at an 11-year low.
The figures however vary significantly according to their industry: “while permanent placements across engineering and IT rose (2.4% and 19.1% respectively), placements within finance decreased by 4.6%”.
The ONS reports that the number of new job opportunities released by companies which have 50 to 249 employees has doubled over the past 5 years but it seems that the number of new jobs coming onto the market recently fell by 2% although placements have been rising in December. The sectors that have suffered the most from this decline are finance and IT with the demand for finance staff plummeting by 14%, APSCo reports.
This trend is likely due to the fact that, since the referendum outcome, banks are now considering moving large numbers of job from the Capital which must have negatively affected recruitment activity since mid-2016. The announcement of Theresa May’s Brexit strategy has resulted in HSBC and UBS planning to move at least 1000 jobs each from London. The forecasts for 2017 suggest this decline within financial services will be reinforced in 2017 onwards.
Unfortunately, we are also witnessing a decrease in average salaries across all professional sectors which have dipped by 2.8% year-on-year. Despite this, however, pay rates rose in several sectors such as IT and finance where APSCo recorded uplifts of 2.5% and 2.1% respectively.
