Firms are signalling growth in levels of staffing

SCOTTISH employers are signalling marginal growth in their collective staffing level in the early months of 2015, a survey has shown.

The survey, published today by recruitment group Manpower, shows people with call centre experience are in demand in Glasgow.

Manpower reports strong demand from financial companies for customer service and administration staff, and for people with pensions experience. It says oil and gas is driving a busy jobs market in Aberdeen.

And Manpower notes that its Grangemouth branch is experiencing an increase in demand for st aff from production companies. The recruitment firm says, to fill the number of roles available in these production companies, it is having to look further afield to the likes of Falkirk and Livingston.

Subtracting the percentage of employers in Scotland expecting to cut their workforce in the coming quarter from that anticipating an increase, a net two per cent forecast a rise in staffing levels.

In Manpower’s previous quarterly survey a balance of three per cent of Scottish employers had planned to increase staffing levels, and had indicated at that stage that they had slowed their recruitment plans pending the result of the independence referendum.

The latest survey signals that the outcome of the referendum has failed to trigger any acceleration in the rate of net recruitment by Scottish employers. Instead, it indicates that the rate of net recruitment will decelerate marginally.

In the UK as a whole, a net seven per cent of employers expect to increase staffing in the coming quarter.