Employers are signalling that they expect recruitment in their own organisations to remain relatively flat for the rest of this year.  

The latest quarterly Employment Outlook Survey from Manpower shows that eight months on from the country’s official emergence from recession, employers in general remain only mildly optimistic about future recruitment prospects.

Based on responses from more than 2,100 employers across nine sectors and 12 regions of the UK, the survey reports anticipated hiring intentions for the next 3 months.  

Employers in four of the nine sectors tracked by the survey forecast positive headcount growth. Those in the Utilities, and Finance and Business Services sectors are most optimistic about taking on additional staff before the end of the year, whilst employers in the Construction, and Retail, Hotels and Restaurants sectors are least optimistic. The survey found that the hiring intentions of employers in the Manufacturing sector had risen for the sixth consecutive quarter.

From a regional perspective, employers in the East of England reported the most positive hiring intentions across a range of sectors, closely followed by employers in the South West, Yorkshire and Humberside and South East.  However, employers in five regions – Northern Ireland, London, Scotland, Wales and West Midlands - all reported weak hiring intentions.    

Commenting on the survey’s findings, Mark Cahill, Manpower UK’s Managing Director, stuck a warning note: 

“The UK business landscape is changing and its future stability is under threat, which carries serious consequences for the labour market. The gap in hiring intentions between the strongest and weakest industry sectors and regions is widening, and although unsurprising, it is a concern for the UK’s post-recession growth strategy.

“If the country is to avoid the predicted 8.1 per cent peak in unemployment, there must be significant business growth underpinned by workforces with the skills employers need to drive and support that growth. We know already that there will be challenges; Public sector hiring intentions are expected to plummet, and there is increasing pressure on the private sector to lead the country back to pre-recession growth, which points to a depressed Q1 2011.” 

Cahill said it was necessary for employers to build flexible work forces by utilising transferable skills and new business practices, in order to deliver ‘output-focused’ solutions.  

He came up with advice for both employers and jobseekers in the current circumstances:

“Finding jobseekers with the right skills at the right time can sometimes be difficult, and in the UK there are concerns of a talent shortage. Even now employers are actively looking for motivated and skilled candidates to join their workforces and help drive future growth. 

“At the same times employers must recalibrate their mindsets to consider candidates who may not have all of the specific skills a job requires. They must refine job descriptions and candidate evaluations to identify people with a ‘teachable fit’ based on adjacent skills rather than a traditional fit, with a practical eye towards filling the gaps in their capabilities. Employers must also commit to re-skilling and up-skilling employees, new hires and potential candidates.

“For jobseekers, investing in continued training and up-skilling will help maximise longer term employment prospects as employers remain focussed on appointing those individuals with the right skills, at the right time. The importance of this, teamed with gaining on-the-job experience in temporary, part-time or unpaid roles should not be underestimated.”