Surveys suggest a strong increase in hiring

Two key industry surveys reveal that employers have positive hiring intentions for the rest of the year.

According to Robert Walters’ latest survey of hiring managers on their recruitment plans for the rest of 2015, 76% said they were going to hire new staff in the rest of the year. This was an increase of 9% compared with the first half of this year.

The Robert Walters survey also found that more than half (57%) of employers planned to take on newly qualified or junior level staff, and that small businesses would be more likely to hire than larger companies.

This confidence was backed up by the latest JobsOutlook survey from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. It found that 86% of employers had plans to add to their permanent headcount over the next three months.

However, in order to tackle skills shortages, many companies would have to gain “short-term access to key strategic skills”, the REC said. This has led to some 98% of employers indicating they will either maintain or increase their use of temps over the next quarter.

The REC’s survey also found that 95% of employers had little or no spare capacity to accommodate an increase in demand. This was especially the case in driving and distribution, where both permanent and temporary skills were in short supply.

REC Chief Executive Kevin Green commented: “Our data tells us that the vast majority of the businesses we surveyed are operating at close to full capacity. However a continued lack of workers with the appropriate skills means that temporary staff are increasingly needed to fill areas of skills shortage.”

“With capacity tight and employers already aware of candidate shortages, it’s clear that competition for top talent will be stiff.”

Chris Hickey, CEO of Robert Walters for UK, the Middle East and Africa, echoed these fears.

He said: “Perhaps the biggest challenge employers will face in the second half of the year will be attempting to deal with candidate shortages, with over 40% of hiring managers expecting to struggle to acquire candidates who meet the requirements of the roles available. However, we have seen employers becoming increasingly open to bringing staff on board who have transferable skills from other areas.”