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- Jo Faragher
With the independence vote around the corner, how are recruiters in Scotland feeling about employment prospects? Jo Faragher finds out.
It’s going to be a busy summer for recruiters in Scotland. The Commonwealth Games begin in Glasgow at the end of this month, bringing a welcome boost to the temporary jobs market, and recent figures from Manpower indicate that hiring intentions in Scotland are back to pre-recession levels.
And while there is an air of anticipation around the independence vote in September, it seems that confidence in the job market will be buoyant whatever the outcome.
Official employment figures also indicate that the employment rate north of the border is higher than for any of the four UK nations. According to the Scottish government, over the past year the employment rate has increased by 1.7 percentage points, and in the last quarter, 73.5% of the population were employed, compared with 72.9% in England.
Commenting on Manpower’s recent Employment Outlook measure for Scotland, which was five points higher than in the previous period, Amanda White, operations manager said: Amanda White, operations manager at Manpower, said: “There have been improvements in confidence across the market this quarter, with some notable organisations such as the NHS and finance call centres all looking to hire.”
HSBC is one of Scotland’s key employers in the banking sector, and has just announced it will create more than 200 jobs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The bank already employs more than 3,300 people in Scotland and has increased its branch footprint and headcount as part of a £20 million investment programme.
Housebuilder Barratt also has confidence in the Scottish market. In March it announced it would take on a combination of 125 graduates, apprentices and trainees over the next three years to meat its plans of constructing 2000 new homes in 21 sites across the region.
Candidate shortages
But while this optimism about growth is boosting hiring intentions, Scotland faces similar challenges to other UK nations when it comes to candidate supply. The latest Report on Jobs carried out by the Bank of Scotland showed that the rate of decline in the supply of candidates for permanent posts was “one of the fastest in the history of the survey”.
Donald MacRae, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, reacted to the report by saying: “Not only did the number of people appointed to both permanent and temporary jobs increase over the month, but vacancies grew at a robust rate.
“The number of candidates available for permanent jobs fell, resulting in a noticeable increase in permanent salaries.”
Martin Gill, a partner in the accounting firm BDO who heads up Scotland, sounded a word of caution. “A gap between supply and demand for skilled workers is developing, which could take the momentum out of the recovery,” he said.
Hiring on the move
One trend that could drive up candidate attraction for hiring managers in Scotland is its rapid adoption of mobile recruiting. Its main job-board, s1Jobs, reports that mobile traffic now accounts for almost 40% of total visits, while applications from the s1 mobile site increased 86% in the first quarter of 2014 year when compared to 2013.
“While we have made advancements in providing customers with integrated social media solutions and stitched in career portals, free of charge, I have most enthusiasm with the leaps we have taken in the mobile space,” reports head of sales Gavin Mochan in his blog.
With candidates thin on the ground, employers are having to find innovative (and often more expensive) ways to get them on board. This is no more so the case than in the oil and gas industry, which is one of the core recruitment markets in Scotland.
Salaries for oil and gas workers, according to figures from s1, can be anything up to around £150,000, and six out of the top ten salary awards for the region were for oil and gas employees based in Aberdeen.
It’s not only candidates with specialist engineering skills these companies are looking for either – they also need people with administration, IT and project management experience to support the business – so there’s a whole recruitment ecosystem based around the sector. The Bank of Scotland predicts that oil and gas companies could create 39,000 new jobs in the UK over the next two years.
Cost of independence?
But while a study by the University of Stirling this week estimated that there was a 79% chance people would vote no to Scotland becoming independent, a ‘yes’ vote could have an impact on business and staffing strategies. Some companies with a strong presence in Scotland, such as the banking group Standard Life, have already hinted they may move their operations if independence goes ahead.
It would mean “greater costs and few benefits either side of the border”, according to Adam Kyriacou, a partner at recruitment specialists Interim Partners. He adds: “The interim executives we talk to see plenty of downside risk from independence without much on the upside.” Interim Partners’ own poll of senior business executives found that 89% felt a vote for independence would have a negative impact on business.
Either way, there is a sense of optimism around job creation, as Simone Lockhart of Search Consultancy sums up. “With continued confidence in the economy as we move through 2014, we believe the climate in Scotland and indeed the rest of the UK is now one in which the very best staffing companies can thrive.”
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