Contractor demand in Scotland hit a six-month high in November, with IT and computing plus engineering and construction in third and fourth places respectively in the Bank of Scotland’s ‘strength of demand’ table.
Contractor recruitment agencies that contributed to the Bank’s latest Report on Jobs confirmed that contractor vacancies in these sectors grew at ‘a marked rate’. Increasing activity in the offshore renewables and oil and gas sectors could account for the surge in contractor demand, particularly as Aberdeen was joint first with Edinburgh in seeing the fastest rates of both permanent and temporary appointments.
Contracting rates also saw a sharp improvement from October, above the average for the rest of the UK. Recruiters put this down to shortages of suitable candidates with specialist skills. That bears out findings of the recent Chartered Management Institute report, which showed business leaders are concerned about skills shortages in 2011.
Although renewed Scottish contracting sector growth in November was in line with the November KPMG/Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Report on Jobs, which measures demand in the entire UK labour market, the report’s upbeat results contrast with other recent labour market surveys.
The November Monster Employment Index (MEI) showed a 6% fall in online demand for workers from the previous month, although online demand for IT workers is up 24% year on year. The Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor for November and the Labour Market Survey August-October from the Office of National Statistics registered falling contracting opportunities and employment.
And despite the Bank of Scotland's Report on Jobs showing a strong growth in contractor demand north of the border, demand still lags behind the UK contracting market as a whole. But Donald MacRae, Chief Economist at Bank of Scotland, says it is still a “welcome improvement in the labour market”, and one that confirms that Scotland is “almost closing the gap with the rest of the UK”.