Construction and energy contractors have benefitted from the bad weather at the start of 2014, shows the latest Manpower UK Employment Outlook. The report also highlights that hiring has increased across all nine industry sectors for the first time since 2008.
“The UK jobs market has reached a turning point,” notes ManpowerGroup UK Managing Director Mark Cahill. “Whilst the overall outlook has been consistently positive now for a number of quarters, it’s actually been six years since the employers we’ve interviewed have reported positive hiring plans in every single sector.”
Cahill also highlights how construction contractors are benefitting from a surge in demand for their services: “The construction forecast has been in negative territory since 2008 and was one of the sectors hardest hit by the recession, but with a score of +2% up from -6% last quarter it has really bounced back.”
Finance and business services, where many core contracting disciplines are found, is also performing well, in second place in the demand league table after agriculture. Utilities is in third place, again as a result of the bad weather.
Cahill explains: “The energy companies that operate the networks have had to bring in extra engineers in recent weeks to restore power. The same companies are now having to take on extra staff to deal with both customer service issues and compensation claims.”
He forecasts that the smart metering due to roll out in 2015 means prospects for energy contractors are positive: “Looking ahead into next year, smart metering will soon be with us and we know from our conversations with the big utility firms that they are planning to take on more people to facilitate this roll-out of new technology.”
The report also shows that large employers, which are the more typical contracting clients, are adding to headcounts as a result of greater optimism about business prospects for the year ahead.
Cahill himself is upbeat about the prospects for the UK labour market: “At last we can confidently say that the jobs market is starting to fire on all cylinders.”