Contractor hiring is expected to increase within 47% of contracting clients during the next three months. And hiring intentions for the rest of 2014 look positive, too, with 46% of clients predicting they will hire more contractors over the next 4-12 months.
These are the findings of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) latest JobsOutlook, which also finds that skilled technicians and engineers will top the skills shortages list this year.
The findings “are a reflection of employers’ growing confidence in the wider economic recovery as well as their belief in their own businesses”, says REC director of policy Tom Hadley.
REC’s Jobs Barometer, which provides a snapshot of labour market conditions based on both hiring intentions and economic outlook, reached a peak of 38 during January 2014. This is 11 points higher than during January 2013, and is the highest level reached since it began in March 2009.
Those clients hiring the most fall into two distinct bands: small firms with between 11-50 employees and large firms with 200+ employees. Unsurprisingly, microbusinesses with 1-10 employees show little requirement for contractors. But the demand for contractors in the UK’s ‘Mittelstand’ of medium sized firms is well below that seen in small and large firms.
The JobsOutlook also shows some interesting trends in how contractors are being used by their clients. In January 2013, 74% of clients believed that contractors were important as a source of short-term access to strategic skills. A year later that fell to 60%.
Similar falls in importance of contractors to the client have been seen in ‘managing change’, ‘responding to growth’, and ‘managing uncertainty’. In fact, ‘covering leave’ was the only area of importance that saw an increase over the last 12 months, although the ability of contractors to help manage ‘peaks in demand’ is also seen as important.
By sector, finance and sales saw the largest increases in contractor demand. Between January 2013 and January 2014, demand for financial contractors rose by 110%, and demand for sales resources by 80%.