Expert predicts economic recovery will strengthen during 2010

The UK economy could begin to strengthen in the second half of 2010 and jobseekers may see the number of vacancies increase, according to one expert.

Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec, has predicted a "transistion" from rising unemployment over the past six months to a situation where the number of jobs available will rise either by the end of this year or the start of 2011.

He stated that the employment market had actually performed above expectation in the past 12 months, as the number of jobless reached 2.5 million, below the forecast three million.

However, although firms appear to have held on to their labourers during the downturn, Mr Shaw hinted that as growth comes back to the market those organisations will feel they have "excess capacity" and thus will not hire more staff.

Get our essential weekday HR news and updates. Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Work Email Keep up with the latest in HR... This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_form This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_date Year Month Day This field is hidden when viewing the form Batch_Newsletter

Investec is an international specialist banking group as well as offering services and strategies with regards to succession planning and tax mitigation.

By Ross George