Scots economic recovery feeds rising demand for workers
● Firms are hiring permanent staff at the fastest rate seen in 14 years
Demand for permanent staff in Scotland has grown at the fastest rate in more than 14 years, a report has claimed, as an exodus of European Union staff has seen the number of people available for work fall.
The rise of permanent jobs available north of the Border far outstripped that of the rest of the UK last month, creating “favourable” conditions for those working in the Scottish jobs market, according to the IHS Markit Report on Jobs for Scotland.
Experts from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) warned that firmsinscotlandweregoingto have to “work that much harder” to recruit skilled workers as demand for employees outstripped the supply of people looking for work.
They said recovery in the Scottish economy, combined with a slight increase in the price of oil and returned confidence to the jobs market has seen employers begin recruiting once more, taking the number of permanent jobs to its highest level in 27 months.
At the same time, a trend for EU staff to begin to return home in the wake of the Brexit vote saw the number of skilled staff available decrease at the fastest rate for a year in May. Around 45 per cent of panellists questioned reported a fall in availability, compared
0 Kevin Green of REC said firms will have to work harder to attract highly-skilled workers with 16 per cent that noted an increase.
Kevin Green, chief executive of REC, said that Scotland’s economy was beginning to show signs of recovery.
“The economy north of the Border lagged behind and for a long period of time, Scotland had the double whammy of oil and gas and pressure in the financial services sector. I think now employers are starting to feel more confident and are looking to hire more people.
“At the same time, they are starting to find that it is harder to fill jobs. They are just going to have to work that much harder and get creative with recruitment. It is not the case anymore that they can put out a job advert and ten highly skilled candidates will apply.”
He added: “There is no doubt that anecdotally and in official figures that we are beginning to see a drift back to Europe by workers affected by the fall in the value of the pound and also worried about their employment status after Brexit.”
Data from the Office for National Statistics has shown that unemployment has dropped to the lowest level since 1975, while employment experts warned that the NHS and the IT sector – which is vital to protect against cyber attacks – are most reliant on temporary staff to fill gaps.
Rises in demand for permanent staff in Scotland were steep across all eight monitored sectors during the latest survey period. IT and computing saw the biggest growth, with a 79.6 index rating.
The extent to which permanent candidate numbers fell north of the Border was slower than across the UK as a whole, as has been the case throughout 2017 so far. The number of temporary jobs on offer also saw steady growth, almost reachingapril’sten-yearhigh.