Today the UK labour market demonstrated its resilience once more.
According to a survey compiled by business consultants KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, in November British firms took on permanent staff members sourced through recruitment agencies at the fastest pace for over 18 months.
For the second consecutive month the index used to measure permanent job appointments came in above the 50 mark which separates increases in hiring from decreases. The index hit 56.0 last month, the highest level seen since April last year.
The statistics also revealed a rapid pace of recruitment in the temporary job sector while the number of unfilled posts rose.
Head of business services with KPMG Bernard Brown commented that: ‘The negative outlook has been replaced by cautious optimism as employers gradually gain confidence to make decisions about the vacancies they want to fill. With the latest figures hinting that robust demand in business is offsetting weak demand across the public sector, we might just be seeing signs of resilience.’
Despite economic concerns and weak employment in the public sector, strength in the private sector contributed to unemployment dropping and employment achieving a record high in the third-quarter of this year.
However, with contraction forecast for the fourth quarter industry experts are urging continued caution.
As stated by Brown: ‘Recovery is by no means certain and we need a few more months like this to suggest that emerging trends are translating into a sustained period of growth in employment’.
As of 11:23 am
The Pound to Euro exchange rate is currently trading at 1.2421
The Pound to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.6048
The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.5305
The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.2915
The Euro to Pound exchange rate is currently trading at 0.8046
Comments are closed.