Mid-year Employment Review 2012

For everyone across the UK the topic of unemployment has been unavoidable for the past 12 months. We are all bombarded with negative headlines and articles gracing our newspapers, TV Screens and news feeds on a daily basis. The changes in employment have been felt harshly by a lot of people in the country with last year’s unemployment figures at an all-time high but things are looking up. This year seems to be much more promising and we are already seeing positive effects take hold.

New Year, New Opportunities

Across the December to February period there has been a reduction by 35,000 in unemployment down to 2.65 million edging the unemployment rate down from a 12 year high of 8.4% to 8.3%. Is this the beginning of the UK climbing out of this recession? If anything it offers a very positive start to the year.

Now with the London 2012 Olympics heading in to the countdown phase specialists predict Employment to rise even further. Over 100,000 people have been employed and are still being recruited by the games across all fields such as Contracting, Medical and Advertising.

There have been some sceptical comments about how the Olympic employment is only temporary and not sustainable, but we believe that the citizens of the UK should embrace such a prosperous opportunity and it may just be the positive boost which many unemployed people are in need of to kick start a real employment drive. Inevitably all over the country many UK workers will have their normal working hours effected especially in areas such as London Park, Wimbledon, Wembley and Portsmouth and at first glance this may appear to be a nuisance however it is expected to increase business in these areas therefore creating more jobs and as a direct result of the Olympics tourism is predicted to rise further strengthening sustainable employment opportunities.

A Step Change

It’s common knowledge that the Government are partly responsible for many of the job losses felt across the nation especially within the public sector in 2011 with cuts being made across all sectors, this has proven to be hugely frustrating and has left many UK workers feeling uneasy within their job. It appears that the cuts in the Public sector have sparked a change in the employment pattern with 45,000 Jobs being created in the Private Sector between November 2011 and March 2012; this is the first time since the start of last year that the Private sector has created more jobs than the Public has shed.

In the recent weeks it seems that every few days a press release is sent out regarding a major firm creating 100 plus jobs in the UK such as Hilton and Southern Electric which is an obvious sign that we are entering a more prosperous stage with foreign organisations particularly firms specialising in renewable energy showing an interest in investing in the UK. Martin Warnes, managing director of reed.co.uk says “The first Reed Job Index of 2012 shows a jobs market that has grown 1% on December and 9% on the previous year with the majority of sectors showing growth on 2011, the job creation growth has shown to be slower than Q4 of 2011 however there is an increase instilling confidence in the job market”.

Overcoming the change

Being Recruitment specialists Employment is our forte and a noticeable change recognised has been an increase in Public Sector workers applying for Private sector jobs an obvious consequence of the job cuts. Although this change from sector to sector can be difficult generally down to the difference in pace of work, processes, clientele and operations there are many ways to enable easier entry and transition.

It may sound obvious but employers like to see success so highlighting your key skills, qualities and achievements to show that you have the correct attributes to make the transition is essential.

We have also noticed a high demand in companies wanting candidates for specialised jobs within the IT, Supply Chain and Logistics sectors due to the increase in technology and companies taking a high interest into risk management and better liquidity, with salary levels staying steady for these sectors.