A fall in permanent hiring by employers in Britain was its least severe in more than a year in May and the recruitment market appears to be poised for a recovery, an industry survey showed on Monday.
In a report that will be studied by the Bank of England as it weighs up when to start cutting interest rates, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said permanent hiring fell by the smallest amount in 14 months.
Billings for temporary staff dropped by the least since January.
“The jobs market looks like it’s on its way back, with clear improvements over last month on most key measures,” REC Chief Executive Neil Carberry said.
The REC survey has generally painted a weaker picture of the labour market than broader official data, which showed annual wage growth of 6 per cent in the first quarter of 2024.
Britain’s July 4 national election and the likelihood of interest rate cuts by the BoE later this year were likely to remove the hesitancy of employers about hiring, Carberry said.
“These numbers suggest that caution may be starting to abate,” he said.
REC said pay rates for permanent staff rose at a pace that was only slightly slower than April’s four-month high. Vacancies fell at the slowest pace in a seven-month downturn.
In a possible relief for the BoE, the availability of staff grew by the most since December 2020, boosted by a mix of redundancies, higher unemployment and the reduction in demand for staff.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Jun 10 2024 | 8:45 AM IST
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said Friday that the U.K. will not interfere with the International Criminal Court’s request for an arrest wa
Britain’s new government said on Friday it was dropping its predecessor’s query of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction to issue an arres
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said Friday that the U.K. will not intervene in the Inte
Tony Jolliffe / BBC The Flow Country is a vast expanse of blanket bog in the North of ScotlandAfter an almost 40-year campaign, a stunning but little-known UK l