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Employer Confidence Returning, Says REC

Tue, 18 Dec 2012
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Employer confidence is bouncing back in the UK, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s (REC) has claimed.

Last week the Office for National Statistics reported the greatest quarterly fall in unemployment since 2001, suggesting employers are gaining the confidence to hire once again.

Kevin Green, chief executive of the REC, noted that the UK has reached record levels of employment and the jobs market has continued to improve in the last quarter of 2012.

“Doom and gloom merchants should focus on the positive rather than risk talking us back into recession,” he urged.

Expanding on this point, Mr Green said it wrong to focus on the growth of people in self-employment, temporary and part-time work.

“Four out of five part-time workers choose to work that way because it suits their home life, studies or caring responsibilities and roughly a quarter of temporary workers end up being taken on as permanent members of staff,” he noted.

The REC chief said all its data points to employer confidence “genuinely bouncing back” with businesses feeling more encouraged to hire.

This bodes well for 2013, Mr Green stated.

“In fact, our members report that employer demand is outstripping supply for workers with certain skills like IT and sales,” he said.

Mr Green said the economy as a whole is “still fragile”.

But it is the flexibility within the labour market, and people at all levels of the workforce being willing to take on temporary contracts, project work and part time roles, that means the UK has not seen the levels of unemployment experienced on the continent, he added.