IT and engineering contractor demand growth in April continued to increase, according to two key UK labour market surveys published this week. This sustained demand for contractors is against a backdrop of a jobs market increasingly polarised between falling demand in the public sector versus mushrooming sector- and skills-specific private sector growth.
April’s KPMG/Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Report on Jobs shows overall demand growth and billings for temporary workers and contractors at its lowest point for four months. However, IT and computing contractor demand is first in the demand league, with engineering and construction contractor demand in second place. Not only that, but both sectors are still exhibiting rapid growth.
The Monster Employment Index (MEI) for April shows engineering and IT to be the third and fourth fastest growing sectors for online recruitment respectively, after transport, post and logistics in first place and construction and extraction in second place. The headline index is back in growth territory after a substantial fall in March.
Both surveys highlight the increasing divide between the public and private sectors, with the MEI showing an 8% year-on-year decline in public sector demand, which is reaching historic lows.
According to KPMG’s Partner and Head of Business Services, Bernard Brown, although some areas of the private sector are actively recruiting again, those businesses that depend on public spending may be next in line for headcount reductions. This could actually be positive news for contractors, as private firms are more likely to hire short-term workers to manage their risk in public sector projects.
“Private sector businesses with a dependency on the public sector are clearly on a knife edge, as they wait to understand how the unfolding government policy will impact them,” explains Brown. “The fundamental issue facing the UK’s ‘twin track’ job market is whether the private sector can create enough jobs to offset the expected job losses in the public sector.”
Monster UK & Ireland’s spokesperson Isabelle Ratinaud is more upbeat in her assessment of the UK labour market, and highlights key contracting client sectors as being particularly buoyant. “The Monster Employment Index for April demonstrates a positive forecast for worker demand around the UK,” she says. “In particular, the technical and industrial sectors have seen a boost in activity.”