Optimism abounds in the UK Recruitment Market
After six years of relentless bad news coming out of
the UK recruitment sector it looks like the tide has turned.
UK-based Recruiter website has reported on information
released from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s (The UK
equivalent to the RCSA) Recruitment
Industry Trends Survey 2012/13.
Here are the major findings:
Area
|
Result
|
Trend
|
Total recruitment industry sales |
£26.5 B
|
+3.1% on 2011/12 result and +35% on 2009/10 |
No. of permanent placements
|
617,314
|
+ 12.1% on 2011/12 result
|
Permanent placement sales
|
£2.4 B
|
+ 2.2% on 2011/12 result
|
Average perm fee
|
£4,001
|
-9.6% on 2011/12 result
|
Average annual perm fees per consultant |
£83,995
|
= Approx AUD $145,000
|
Average daily temps working
|
1.13 M
|
+ 2.0% on 2011/12 result
|
Temporary placement sales
|
£24.1 B
|
+3.2% on 2011/12 result
|
Average number of daily temps working per consultant |
32.2
|
+1% on 2011/12 result
|
Top 4 job types for perm placements |
1. Accounting/financial (19.8% of all perm placements)
2. Business Support (18.1%)
3. Other (15.2%)
4. IT (11.1%)
|
|
Top 4 job types for temp placements |
1. Other Industrial/Blue Collar (21.4% of all temp placements)
2. Business Support (14.9%)
3. Technical/engineering (12.9%)
4. IT (8.9%)
|
|
Total recruiters employed by UK agencies |
64,669 (38% temp/contract only, 33% perm only, 29% dual desk) |
The result that I was especially heartened by was the REC’s forecasts that suggest total industry growth of
over 25% between now and 2015-16 is realistic.
Supporting this optimism is a stream of positive
economic news coming out of the UK, reported by Deloitte
last week, which suggest that within
ten months, the UK has gone from being one of the rich world’s growth laggards
to being one of its stronger performers.
Deloitte also reported that (i) since
February, economists have raised their forecasts for UK growth next year more
quickly than for any other big, industrialised country, (ii) in the second and
third quarters of this year, the UK economy grew at above-trend rates and at
the fastest pace in three years and (iii) The European Commission predicts that
the UK will be Europe’s fastest growing major economy for the next two years.
Given the UK recruitment industry’s 2012/13 sales
result was still below the pre-recessionary peak of £27 billion there’s a lot to be optimistic about, mirroring the very
positive blog posted by Greg
Savage, three months ago, after his recent visit to speak to a group
of UK recruitment agency owners.
Let’s hope the positive news out of the UK continues
and we see the same momentum in the Australian recruitment market in early
2014.
Hmmmm – Number of placements up average fees down