Demand for staff grows at record rate, survey finds

Demand for staff surged again in June as lockdown measures were eased, a survey of English recruitment companies suggests.

The number of permanent jobs available grew at its fastest rate since 1997, KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found.

Growth in temporary postings was its strongest in nearly 23 years.

However, most of the 400 recruitment firms polled reported it was getting harder to find skilled candidates.

"June's data confirms that momentum in the jobs market continues to surge, with improved business confidence leading to record high recruitment activity," said Claire Warnes, partner and head of education, skills and productivity at accountancy firm KPMG.

"But for the fourth month running we're seeing a decline in the availability of candidates to fill all these new roles and the most severe deterioration for 24 years.

"We need action from businesses and government to re-skill and up-skill furloughed and prospective workers now more than ever."

According to the survey, recruiters noted that increased hiring, Brexit, pandemic-related uncertainty and the furlough scheme all weighed on candidate numbers.

However, as a result both starting salaries and temporary pay rose rapidly at the end of the second quarter of 2021.

According to the research, there were substantial increases in permanent job vacancies across all four English regions monitored - the Midlands, the South, London and the North.

The South saw the biggest rise in temporary job vacancies, while the weakest growth was in the capital.

Overall, the steepest increase in demand was seen for permanent private sector staff, particularly in the IT and computing, hotel and catering and engineering sectors.

Nevertheless, growth in demand for staff was also "historically strong" across the public sector.

Mark Lee, who runs the Red Lion Country Inn in Yorkshire, told the BBC demand for staff was outstripping supply.

Despite advertising on a range of sites, he didn't receive a single application for jobs posted.

He said before the pandemic, he would frequently receive 50 or more applications per job advert.

"If we were to open up in full swing it would be at least 12 jobs unfilled, but it's six unfilled at the moment," Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee has also used agencies to find staff, but when he asked for a sous chef they could only provide an employee who had never worked in a catering kitchen before.

Brian Lord, chief executive of cybersecurity and intelligence consultancy PGI, has encountered the same issue in the IT sector.

"Covid has been the main driver in demand because remote working has meant more vulnerability for organisations," Mr Lord said.

In June, PGI advertised 10 roles across its digital security teams but has only managed to fill two positions so far with the help of an in-house training academy.

Mr Lord said slow rate in hiring was due to potential employers "invariably ending up in a bidding war", which he said was often won by richer companies "who are better able to absorb the increased overhead or more able to pass the increased cost on their client base".

"There is just no unemployment in the sector and supply is struggling to keep up," he added.

Manny Athwal, chief executive of the School of Coding in Wolverhampton, said employers have been contacting the school, which has 5,250 students, to recruit potential candidates before they even start courses.

However, Gerwyn Davies from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said there was a danger of overhyping the shortages, with a fall in the number of young people currently in employed in the UK.

In hospitality especially, Mr Davies said "a perfect storm" had occurred "where we're seeing a demand for labour occur alongside a sharp fall in the stock of EU workers".

"It's a question of employers having to work harder to recruit and train their staff rather than having no applicants," he added.

REC chief executive Neil Carberry said: "Recruiters are working flat out to fill roles across our economy. The jobs market is improving at the fastest pace we have ever seen, but it is still an unpredictable time.

"We can't yet tell how much the ending of furlough and greater candidate confidence will help to meet this rising demand for staff. In some key shortage sectors like hospitality, food, driving and IT, more support is likely to be needed to avoid slowing the recovery."