400,000 new jobs: the Brexit bonanza goes on

Recruitment giant records rise – with accountancy and teaching up most

ONE of Britain’s largest recruitment firms said the employment market has boomed since the EU referendum with an extra 30,000 new jobs on its books since the Brexit vote.

In the eight weeks following June 23, there were 400,000 new jobs posted on Reed’s website – 30,000 higher than the same period in 2015 and an increase of 8 per cent.

James Reed, chairman of Reed.co.uk, whose parent Reed Group has a turnover of more than £1billion, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘A lot of economists were confounded by last week’s Office for National Statistics figures which showed unemployment continuing to fall during July. But we were not surprised.

‘Our data has shown the jobs market has continued to grow since the Brexit referendum with 30,000 more new jobs posted in the eight weeks since the vote than in the same period last year.’

Three weeks after the Brexit vote, Reed had reported 150,000 new jobs in the period since the referendum, which – in common with the latest figures – represented a rise of 8 per cent.

The sectors with the biggest year-on-year rises in new jobs posted for the eight weeks since the referendum were education (up 28 per cent); accountancy (up 24 per cent); construction and property (up 21 per cent). The largest fallers were banking (down 23 per cent); training (down 18 per cent); and apprenticeships (down 15 per cent). Leisure, voluntary, hospitality and estate agency jobs were also down on the same period in the previous year.

Reed said: ‘For most employers it’s business as usual. Skills shortages remain and companies need to hire. Our numbers show that UK industry is resilient. We’ve seen growth in a number of sectors including manufacturing and automotive, which is an encouraging sign for longer-term economic prospects. However, we must also be alert to the warning signs of what may be to come.’

Economists believe the full effects of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union have yet to be felt. Ruth Gregory, UK economist at Capital Economics, said: ‘It is much too soon to see the effects of the likely deterioration in the labour market and rising inflation – which will undermine real wage growth.

‘Sterling’s fall will only gradually feed through to materially higher consumer prices over the next few years – although there have been some indications of this further up the supply chain. And the labour market tends to lag overall economic conditions by at least a few quarters.’