Salaries for permanent positions also hit six-year high
Job vacancies in the UK have grown at the strongest rate since 1998, according to statistics from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
This month’s Report on Jobs from REC and KPMG found that the acceleration was driven by strong demand in the private sector.
However, the availability of workers to fill these roles fell at the quickest rate in six years for permanent placements, and nine years for temporary placements, the analysis of data from hundreds of recruitment agencies showed.
There were positive findings in the pay field as permanent salaries had increased at the fastest rate in six years, and wages for temporary and contract staff rose at a “solid pace”.
Regionally, the Midlands registered the most robust growth in vacancy numbers for both permanent and temporary roles. By sector, the strongest demand for hiring permanent workers was in the engineering industry, followed by staff in the nursing, medical and care sector.
The fastest rate of growth for temporary or contract staff was for ‘blue collar’ employees, closely followed by engineering. The slowest rise was for workers in the construction industry.
Commenting on the findings, REC’s chief executive Kevin Green said: “The fact that our figures show starting salary growth hitting a six-year high, combined with continued skill and talent shortages, indicates that we can expect salaries to increase and job fluidity to accelerate into 2014.”
Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, added: “Business certainly seems to be more confident because organisations across the UK are maintaining their recruitment drive to the point that the rate of growth in vacancies has reached a 15-year high.”
But he cautioned that the wider picture in the labour market was “never that simple”.
“The opportunities may exist but employees don’t seem keen to take them, with the proportion of candidates making themselves available falling at the sharpest rate for six years,” Brown explained.
“As a result employers are trying to tempt top talent to change jobs by offering more in the way of cash or incentives. It’s a tactic that may bring short-term success, but the risk of falsely inflating the jobs market must be considered. Left unchecked, it could put unnecessary and unsustainable pressure on businesses just at the time their cash flow problems are easing.”