Contractor demand remained at near record highs, shows the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)/KPMG Report on Jobs for September 2013. Public sector contractor demand rose during the month at the fastest rate in the report’s history.
“This month’s figures show the jobs market continues to be the success story in the UK economy, with all regions and sectors experiencing growth,” notes REC CEO Kevin Green.
However, with contractor availability falling, Green also warns of impending skills shortages: “Demand for staff may be up, but the number of individuals putting themselves on the market has dropped for the fifth consecutive month.
“We can see that the division in the jobs market is getting worse, with vacancies going up as the number of skilled workers to fill them goes down. There is a real two-speed labour market in place. We have a buoyant, candidate-driven market for skilled and professional roles, versus an oversupply of candidates for jobs that don’t rely on a specific skill set.”
Recruiters reported that engineers and technicians across the board, business analysts and a wide range of skilled trades were particularly difficult to source during the month.
Engineering was top of the demand league table. The next highest core contracting discipline was construction, in fourth place behind blue collar and nursing/medical care. IT & computing was in fifth place, an improvement from the sixth place it held in August.
Demand for permanent employees in the public sector fell during September. This, alongside the sharp increase in contractor hiring, supports anecdotal evidence that the public sector is increasingly turning to contractors for specialist skills and to maintain service levels.
Geographically, the Midlands experienced the greatest increase in contractor demand alongside the fastest increase in rates and a fall in contractor availability, all pointing to emerging contractor shortages in the region.
“Improved market conditions, higher activity levels amongst clients and generally stronger levels of confidence amongst employers are certainly one of the major factors underpinning the latest rise in placements,” concludes KPMG partner and head of business services Bernard Brown.