Growth in vacancies despite ‘pre-election blip’

Nick Elvin

Professional recruitment firms now have 21% more vacancies on their books than this time last year, according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo). However, month-on-month demand for workers fell by 1% between January and February 2013, which the trade association says is mainly due to uncertainties around the general election.

According to the APSCO data, year-on-year growth in the professional staffing market continues to climb across all of the organisation’s core sector groups. Permanent vacancies across finance & accounting, IT, engineering and media & marketing are all up year-on-year (12%, 27%, 25% and 7% respectively).

The rapid growth of the IT sector can largely be attributed to a widely recognised national shift in roles in response to the digital economy. APSCO points to research from PwC, which indicates that 1.8 million people – 6% of all workers – are now employed in a type of job that did not exist in 1990, a figure that rises to 10% in London.

APSCo’s figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors remain relatively stable, increasing by 1.2% year-on-year. There are fluctuations in terms of sector, with engineering and finance, for example, recording uplifts of 9.3% and 4.1% respectively. This average rise in remuneration is mirrored by data from the Office for National Statistics, which reported that average earnings, excluding bonuses, grew at an annual rate of 1.6% in the three months to January 2015.

Ann Swain, chief executive of APSCo said: “As we predicted earlier this year, uncertainty in the run up to the general election, and any associated impact on policy, seems to have temporarily dampened activity as organisations put the brakes on hiring to wait for greater stability. Despite this month-on-month blip however, we are not surprised that professional recruitment levels remain high.”

Temporary and contract vacancies remain strong across the professional staffing market with opportunities up by 4.4% across the board year-on-year. Temporary vacancies across finance & accounting and media & marketing are particularly strong (increasing by 1.5% and 9% respectively). These figures follow analysis from the Bank of England which found that the UK self-employment boom is largely the result of structural shifts in the workforce as ageing professionals, and women in particular, have become self-employed in search of more flexible hours.

Swain added: “Contract vacancy rates no longer directly correlate with the number of permanent positions. A record 15% of the UK workforce is now self-employed, which is a sign of our nation’s desire for flexibility, driven by entrepreneurial spirit.”