Professional hiring stable post-Brexit

Professional recruitment firms reported that vacancy numbers remained stable in the month following the EU referendum with 0.2% year-on-year growth in July 2016, according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

This is in line with the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which reported in August that the overall employment rate was 74.5% in the three months to June 2016 – with 23.22 million people working full-time, 374,000 more than a year earlier.

The latest data from APSCo reveals notable variations between the trade association’s core sector groups in terms of hiring activity. While permanent vacancies across both financial services and marketing, for example, have increased (6% and 16%, respectively), IT and engineering have both recorded dips (7% and 9%, respectively). 

Following a steady increase in demand pre-Brexit, temporary and contract vacancies dipped across the professional staffing market in July, with opportunities softening by 2% year-on-year. The clear exception is the finance and accounting sector, where vacancies increased by 21% in July. This is most likely due to a reluctance to bring on board talent on a permanent basis until there is greater clarity around what Britain’s relationship with Europe will look like post Article 50 – and how this will impact the operations of multi-national financial institutions in the future.      

APSCo’s figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors dipped by 0.8% year-on-year. This figure is characterised by notable fluctuations in terms of sector, with financial services, for example, recording an uplift of 3.6%. Average salaries within the professional sectors fall short of the national increase in pay as reported by the ONS, which found that average earnings grew at an annual rate of 2.3% in the three months to June 2016.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, commented: “Pre-Brexit, it was widely hypothesised that market confidence and the UK economy would spin into freefall if Britain was to leave the European Union. However, so far, these fears have proved unfounded. Data shows that both retail sales and the labour market performed strongly in July and August’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reported that Eurozone activity was at its highest for seven months.”

Adam Pode, Director of Research for Staffing Industry Analysts, which compiles the report for APSCo, added: “The drop in the demand in the engineering sector comes as no surprise. The oil industry, which makes up an important part of the sector, has seen revenues tumble 96% from 2014­­–15 to just £60m in 2015­–16, according to Government figures. Last year the number of jobs supported by the UK’s oil and gas industry fell by an estimated 84,000 and are forecast to fall by a further 40,000 this year. Separately, concerns about commercial construction are also having a negative impact.”