Silver lining for UK’s permanent workers

A new survey from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) shows that over half of employers (54 per cent) plan to increase their permanent workforce in the next three months, while 49 per cent see their permanent workforce growing in the long term. In fact, according to the JobsOutlook survey, only a tiny percentage of employers (1 per cent) anticipate cutting back on permanent staff over the year ahead.

Furthermore, October also saw a boost in the number of temporary staff who were subsequently taken on as permanent employees with almost one in four temps landing a permanent role this way, the highest transfer rate since the survey began in July 2009.

The REC’s director of research Roger Tweedy says:

“Business confidence is steadily strengthening each month. With official employment figures continuing to grow and the UK exiting the double dip recession there are fewer dark clouds on the horizon and many employers feel they can confidently plan for the future.

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“Employers see transferring temps into permanent staff as a cost-effective, low risk way to grow their workforce. This has been an increasing trend during the recession.”

JobsOutlook reports the responses of 600 employers questioned about their hiring intentions over the next quarter and the next year. Respondents are drawn from across the public, private and non-profit sector, and from across a range of industries and sizes of organisation.

November’s JobsOutlook survey of employers reports that:

• 95 per cent said they plan to either increase (54 per cent) or maintain (41 per cent) their numbers of permanent staff over the next three months (a total increase of two per cent on last month)
• 99 per cent reported they intended to either increase (49 per cent) or maintain (50 per cent) their permanent headcount over the next 12 months (a total increase of two per cent on last month)
• 29 per cent plan to increase agency worker numbers in the next quarter (up two points on last month) with 12 per cent saying they intend to decrease their use of agency workers (compared to 11 per cent last month)
• 22 per cent say they will increase agency workers over the next year (compared to 21 per cent last month) with 12 per cent saying they will decrease their use of agency workers (up from 11 per cent last month)
• 59 per cent say they will maintain the same number of agency workers over the next quarter, with 66 per cent saying they will make no changes over the rest of the year