The recruitment market is looking more positive as the growth of permanent and temporary staff appointments has now reached two-year and 16-month highs, respectively.
According to the latest Report on Jobs from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG, October marked the third consecutive month of growth in permanent and temporary appointments and there was a marked rise in job vacancies. And although salaries continued to drop, it was at their slowest pace in 13 months. The availability of staff to fill job vacancies continued to increase last month.
Kevin Green, chief executive of the REC, said: "These figures show that the UK jobs market is on the road to recovery, with signs of improvement for the third month in a row. The demand for permanent recruitment is returning as employers start to hire people at an accelerating rate.
Confidence is on the rise with permanent placements increasing at their fastest rate in two years and growth of temporary staff appointments at a 16-month high. Based on the latest findings, we anticipate that unemployment will not reach 3 million in 2010 as some predicted. This again highlights the benefits of the UK's flexible labour market and a balanced attitude towards employment legislation in terms of keeping people in work."
Marketing jobs are often the first to be cut when economies slow down, so when companies start recruiting for their marketing departments, it is an encouraging sign that confidence in the economy is increasing.
Steve Mann, managing director of Cambridge-based marketing recruiter, Brand Recruitment, says: “the start of the year was definitely a real slow down, with many companies seemingly battening down the hatches and [ruling out] marketing expenditure. We noticed a complete downturn in the number of marketing jobs being called into us, and from speaking with clients in the marketing agency sector, we also heard that their clients were lowering spends and cancelling planned marketing projects.
The last couple of months have seen a massive increase in the number of marketing jobs called in, with companies actively starting to recruit. This is clearly really positive sign.”
Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, added: "The UK jobs market looks healthier today than at any time in the past two years which is, of course, encouraging news. The [financial] sector tends to lead the recovery and we may well have reached the tipping point into growth, driven by returning confidence in the private sector. However, we are yet to see the impact of the looming public-sector recession on the jobs market, which will play out over the first 12 months of a new parliamentary term."
So all in all it looks like good news for marketing jobseekers. And that could bring some welcome festive cheer.
Original article from www.onlymarketingjobs.com
To find out more about marketing jobs or marketing temps, please go to www.brandrecruitment.co.uk
