Reversing a Jobs Downturn

This week we hear that one London based recruiter is reducing its staff numbers by 10% and another multi-national recruitment operation has issued a profit warning.  Anecdotally, we hear of some small scale redundancies within the investment funds sector as companies look for cost efficiencies.  At street level, go into any independently owned shop in your local area and they’ll tell you that “there’s definitely a recession on”.

The effect on the jobs market is that employers are “labour hoarding” and employees are choosing safety by staying put.  To state the obvious, it’s about confidence and a need for certainty.  Positive movement in any or all of the following will help:

·       Further interest rate reductions by the Bank of England to regenerate consumer spending and restart the economy

·       Companies finalise restructured operating models in the light of advancing technology and reset hiring plans

·       The hire of new local talent recommences as offshoring becomes less economically advantageous

·       The government’s industrial strategy and negotiated trade agreements feed through to employment

Not an exhaustive recipe list, but one that contains the base ingredients required.  As always, timing is the big unknown.