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£5.55

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Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the representative body for the UK recruitment industry, have shared their latest jobs outlook, highlighting key trends, forecasts and feedback from UK employers.

Commenting on the report, REC chief executive Kevin Green said:

“Whilst it is too early to draw conclusions about the impact the EU referendum result will have on hiring activity, it is encouraging to see how strong the UK jobs market was in the months leading up to the vote.

“Data from the ONS shows that employment grew by 624,000 in the last year and we have our best ever employment rate of 74.4 per cent. This supports the idea that the jobs market will be able to withstand any disruption to the economic outlook.

“At the same time, there are still lots of employers finding it difficult to hire the staff they need in both highly skilled sectors such as engineering and at the other end of the market in hospitality and healthcare.     

“With British applicants already in short supply, policy makers must ensure that employers can continue to access the people they need from Europe to fill the jobs available. This must be top of the agenda to safeguard the strength of the UK jobs market and sustainable economic growth which benefits us all.”  

 (Survey conducted 21^st of June, report published in July)

Download the full JobsOutlook Report

Source: REC

• The minimum pay per hour that workers are entitled to by law.
• A range of different rates apply depending on the age of the worker.
• Set by the UK Government.Based on an estimation of how much employers should pay.
• A statutory obligation which employers must meet or face legal challenge.

• A voluntary rate that employers can choose to commit to paying.
• The rate is the same for all workers over the age of 18.
• Set by the Living Wage Foundation.
• Based on the cost of living and the “Minimum Income Standards” required for a basic, but adequate standard of living.
• A movement and a demonstration of best practice and fair work.

This month we are delighted welcome Lauren Daly to our Engineering, Manufacturing & Supply Chain team.

With a background in recruitment and customer service, Lauren joins Escape’s Livingston office where she will specialise in the recruitment of Supply Chain and Procurement professionals across Scotland. Lauren was inspired to follow a career in recruitment whilst completing her HND in Business and HR; sharing that she particularly enjoys learning about new job functions and the fact that every day is different.

On joining Escape, Lauren commented: “I’m looking forward to working closely with the team at Escape who have already been supportive in welcoming me to the business and sharing their knowledge with me. I hope to continue the success that they have had in delivering high-quality recruitment services to our clients and candidates.”

Dan Stewart, Head of Engineering, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Recruitment at Escape added: “We’re delighted to welcome Lauren to the team and have already been impressed by her dedication and enthusiasm. Lauren allows us to focus even more firmly on a key sector – Supply Chain, and grow our already comprehensive offering in that area for both our clients and candidates.”

Lauren’s focus with Escape will be on sourcing specialist candidates including: 
Supply Chain | Procurement | Purchasing | Buyers | Planners | Purchasing | Materials | Logistics | Master Schedulers | Supplier Development Engineers | Expeditors |

Connect with Lauren

01506 461 445 | lauren.daly@escaperecruitment.com | LinkedIn 

Our Engineering, Manufacturing & Supply Chain team specialise in recruiting within:

Design | Quality | Process | Maintenance | Management | Projects | Scientific | Supply Chain, Procurement & Purchasing

Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the representative body for the UK recruitment industry, have shared their latest jobs outlook (published end December 2015), highlighting key trends, forecasts and feedback from UK employers.

Commenting on the report, REC director of policy Tom Hadley said:

“2015 has been a vintage year for the labour market. Employers are confident, hiring has been steady and pay has increased for many people as the benefits of economic growth filter through. The outlook for 2016 is similarly rosy, with many private sector businesses seeking to build upon a successful year by expanding their capacity to take on more work, and also by improving productivity. This should mean even more opportunities for people with the right skills.

Although the overall outlook is upbeat, major challenges are just around the corner. The introduction of the National Living Wage, uncertainty around the EU referendum outcome, and skills shortages that are getting worse in many industries all have the potential to knock employers off their stride. Public sector services such as education and healthcare are already finding it extremely difficult to bring in the people they need. The challenge of ensuring that the demand for staff is met by the supply of suitably skilled candidates casts a shadow over the forecast for 2016.”

Summary of key points:

• Confidence
  • 82% of employers believe that the economic conditions are improving.
  • However 19% believe that conditions are worsening, an increase on the previous two months.
  • On balance 97% feel that the outlook translates into static or improved prospects for hiring and investment decisions.
• Short-term outlook (next 3 months)
  • 94% of employers plan to hold or increase permanent headcount. With just 6% of employers are planning to decrease numbers of permanent staff.
  • 99% of employers intend to hold or increase their agency worker numbers whilst only 1% plan to reduce their temporary workforce.
  • With 45% of employers intending to increase their temporary staffing levels REC predict challenges in terms of accessing sufficient numbers of workers with appropriate skills/experience.
• Medium-term outlook (4 to 12 months)
  • 97% of employers intend to hold or increase permanent numbers in the medium term.
  • Significantly the number of employers to reduce headcount has reduced by half in the previous month from 6% to 3%.
  • REC believes this is an indicator of who tight the market of available candidates will be during this period.
  • 45% of hirers are looking to increase agency headcount in the medium term, an increase on the same period in 2014 when just 37% planned to source additional headcount.
• Skills shortages
  • Technical and engineering skills have been consistently in the top three anticipated skills shortage for hire throughout 2015
  • The final report of the year shows 14% of employers continue to anticipate a shortage for permanent hires and 15% for agency workers.
• Sector prospects
  • Anticipated demand for both permanent and agency engineering staff is “accelerating fast”.
  • Agency workers in technology and with office skills continue to experience a “long term upward trend in anticipated demand”.

Source: REC

Demand for engineers continues to rise but over half (53 per cent) of employers are struggling to recruit suitably skilled staff, says the 2015 Skills & Demand in Industry report. Published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the report reveals that 61 per cent of employers are least satisfied with skills among graduates – and that two thirds (66 per cent) are concerned that the education system will struggle to keep up with the skills required for technological change.

The report also highlights that while over half (53 per cent) of employers say they are recruiting engineering staff this year, 64% claim a shortage of engineers in the UK is a threat to their business.

This is the tenth year that the IET has published its skills report and the role of education comes under the spotlight, together with ongoing diversity issues in engineering and a lack of both available graduates and more experienced engineering staff. The findings are based on telephone interviews with over 400 employers of engineering and technology staff drawn from across the United Kingdom undertaken in June 2015.

Women account for only 9 per cent of the UK engineering workforce – and yet 57% of employers do not have gender diversity initiatives in place.

Other findings include:

• 69 per cent of employers recruiting graduates report a lack of available graduates
• 68 per cent are having most difficulty recruiting senior engineers with five to ten years’ experience
• 75 per cent do not have LGBT/ ethnic diversity initiatives in place
• 53 per cent feel that Government initiatives for recruiting apprentices are not straightforward
• 94 per cent recognise they have a responsibility to support employee transition to the workplace

Nigel Fine, IET Chief Executive, said:

“Demand for engineers in the UK remains high, with supply unable to keep pace – and employers continuing to highlight skills shortages as a major concern.

“Stronger and deeper collaboration between employers and academic institutions is needed to agree practical steps to ensure that young people are suitably prepared both academically and practically before they start work. Supporting and encouraging teachers and academics to spend time in industry – and employers to visit schools, colleges and universities – would also be hugely beneficial.”

“Employers also need to recognise the need for workforce diversity and do more to attract recruits from a wider talent pool. This might include looking at other professions, such as medicine and accountancy that have been more successful at attracting a diverse workforce. It also means working with parents and teachers to promote engineering as a creative, rewarding and exciting profession for girls, as well as boys.”

The Forth Rail Bridge has been named as Scotland’s favourite example of engineering in a survey of 1000 Scots commissioned by the Low Carbon Infrastructure Task Force to mark the launch of the search for the low carbon infrastructure icons of the future.

This iconic 125 year old construction, which employed more than 4,500 men during its construction, and took eight years to complete, was also awarded Unesco World Heritage status earlier this year.

With 49% of the vote, the Rail Bridge was a clear winner, ahead of Glenfinnan Viaduct which, well-known from its appearance in the Harry Potter films, came second with 13%. Other engineering projects featured in the poll included Glasgow’s subway, the Caledonian Canal and the Falkirk Wheel.

Sara Thiam, Chair of Low Carbon Infrastructure Task Force and regional director of the Institution of Civil Engineers, said: “The Forth Bridge continues to be an icon of civil engineering excellence and we’re delighted that it has captured the public’s imagination in this way.  The bridge is a great example of how engineering expertise can be used to create infrastructure which stands the test of time and shapes the way we live well into the future.”

The Task Force has now published its own longlist of low carbon, future-proof engineering projects and is calling on the public to “follow the bold example of Scotland’s past engineering innovators” and get behind their favourite project online.

Related pages:

• Find out more about these projects at Scotland's Way Ahead.
• View our latest job opportunities within Engineering

0141 410 9113
gail.halkett@escaperecruitment.com

Gail Halkett
Gail, who has been a successful recruiter within our Engineering, Manufacturing and Supply Chain division since 2007, will now take on a new role as Escape’s Client Relationship Leader. Whilst continuing to support and deliver recruitment services for employers across Scotland, Gail will also work closely with our existing and prospective clients to develop and grow key accounts across our business, offering our clients a central point of contact to support their recruitment needs and ensure we live our vision of “putting our customers at the heart of everything we do”. A previous winner at the national Scottish Recruitment Awards, Gail has a strong understanding of the quality and service required to build effective business relationships and work in true partnership with organisations across Scotland.

Dan Stewart, Head of Engineering, Manufacturing and Supply Chain at Escape said: “Gail’s work ethic, professionalism and commitment has been unwavering since she joined Escape in 2007.  Testament to this is the strong reputation for delivery she has gained both externally with her customers and internally with her colleagues where she is firmly viewed as a standard bearer.  Gail will carry her attitude and determination with her to this new role which is a key position for Escape to enable us to live our values and grow our business.”

0141 410 9133
linda.hunter@escaperecruitment.com

Linda Hunter
Linda, an award winning recruiter within Escape’s Commercial and Administration division, was promoted to Senior Consultant. Recruiting with Escape since 2008, Linda has developed a strong focus in delivering a high-quality, specialist temporary and contract recruitment service to a wide range of leading organisations across Scotland. This year Linda has not only achieved her best year in recruitment but has done so whilst continuing to develop her professional knowledge, having recently gaining her REC accreditation and achieving 100% in our first annual REC compliance assessment.

Anne-Marie Hamill, Owner & Director at Escape, shared her delight regarding Linda’s promotion at our recent company meeting, saying: “Linda has shown real determination and passion to achieve since she joined Escape as a Trainee Recruiter.  Her track record of outstanding performance in the business has been achieved by delivering a high quality service to her customers and candidates whilst supporting the development and efforts of the team.  Her professional attitude and friendly approach are admired across the business and her promotion to Senior Consultant well deserved.  With colleagues like Linda in our business we are well on course to achieve our strategic growth objectives.”

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the representative body for the UK recruitment industry, have released their latest jobs outlook, highlighting key trends, forecasts and feedback from UK employers.

This month, the report once again highlighted issues regarding skills shortages and the challenges facing a number of industries within the UK, in particular addressing competition for talent between the private and public sector organisations.

Commenting on the report, REC chief executive Kevin Green said:

“The private sector is clearly paying more to retain talent so the outlook for public sector organisations whose staff have the skills that the private sector requires is going to be testing.

The challenge for business and government is to address the gap between the skills employers want and the skills candidates have. That involves improving careers advice in schools, better vocational education and more opportunities for older workers to reskill.”

Summary of key points:

Confidence

• Three quarters of employers believe that economic conditions, domestically are improving. This is a drop from eight in ten in July’s report.
• Remaining relatively stable from the previous month, 45% of employers expect confidence in hiring and investment decisions to get better.

Use of agency workers

• Eight in ten (79%) hirers are using agency workers to gain short-term access to key strategic skills.

Short-term outlook (next 3 months)

• The number of UK employers stating they will increase their permanent workforce continued to rise (86%).
• The number of hirers planning to add agency headcount over the next quarter increase by 13 percentage points to 44%
• With only 2% planning to reduce agency workers, there continues to be a concern regarding competition for talent.

Medium-term outlook (4 to 12 months)

• This month’s report shows an increase of 11 percentage points in the positive balance of medium term permanent hiring intensions with 79% planning to increase numbers.
• 4% plan to decrease their permanent headcount, with the remaining 17% looking to stay the same.
• There was a significant rise in the proportion of hirers planning to increase agency workers to four in ten hirers.
• 59% expect to maintain current levels of agency workers whilst only 1% intend to decrease numbers, adding to the concern regarding competition.

Skills shortages

• Employers anticipate driving and distribution skills to be in short supply to fill both permanent (14%) and temporary (10%) roles over the next year.
• Engineering and technical skills remain the top area of concern in regards to skills shortages over the next year.

Source: REC

This month thousands of engineers started using the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer along with photos of themselves explaining their work in engineering.

Why?

It all started after a recruitment advert for OneLogin attracted comments, photos and discussions about one of the four featured engineers, Isis Wenger, and in particular whether this was what female engineers looked like.

Isis, who is a full-stack engineer at OneLogin, published a post about her experience and the different reactions to the campaign. In her post, she describes herself as, amongst other things, a “self-taught engineer, extreme introvert, science-nerd”.  With thousands of responses to her to post, Isis encouraged those who identified with her message to use the hashtag.

Social analytics site Topsy shows that to date over 97,000 tweets have been sent with the #ILookLikeAnEngineer tag. 

Isis is also currently launching www.ilooklikeanengineer.com as a platform for others to “share stories and experiences relating to diversity issues in tech”.

Want to find out more?

• View the latest #ILookLikeAnEngineer tweets
• Read Isis’ blog post
• Submit your story to www.ilooklikeanengineer.com

• Register your CV with us
• Search our latest engineering jobs

Just updated my Medium post! #iLookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/szMTCuRVu0

— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) August 3, 2015

.@isisAnchalee #iLookLikeAnEngineer pic.twitter.com/gyuY2xdMUk

— Charna Parkey (@CharnaParkey) August 3, 2015

#ILookLikeAnEngineer because I am one. (In support of @isisAnchalee and diversity in tech: https://t.co/WkWlMd4fcL) pic.twitter.com/L3CgsVdWwE

— Michelle Glauser (@MichelleGlauser) August 3, 2015

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the representative body for the UK recruitment industry, have released their latest jobs outlook, highlighting key trends, forecasts and feedback from UK employers.

This month, REC highlights a recovery from a dip in permanent hiring intentions in the last two months, from 62% in May and 63% in June to 74% this month.

Commenting on the regular monthly report, REC chief executive Kevin Green said:

“With candidates in short supply employers need to think hard about how they attract jobseekers. Longer term, business, government and educators must work together to help alleviate the skills shortages so that candidates are equipped with the skills that employers need.”

Summary of key points:

Confidence

• Eight in ten UK employers state that economic conditions are getting better.
• 45% of employers expect confidence in hiring and investment decisions to get better.

Pay

• Four in ten (41%) employers increased pay/earnings of their staff in the last year.
• None of the employers surveyed reported a reduction in pay during this period.

Short-term outlook (next 3 months)

• This month shows a rise in the number of UK employers stating they will increase their permanent workforce (74%)
• 99% of those surveyed plan to maintain or increase agency worker numbers over the next quarter
• With only 1% planning to reduce agency workers, competition is predicted to intensify.

Medium-term outlook (4 to 12 months)

• The number of employers intending to increase permanent workforce in the medium term continues to remain steady this month (71%).
• 7% plan to decrease their permanent headcount, with the remaining 22% looking to stay the same.
• The intention to hire agency workers remained static in June, mirroring short-term intent. Just under a third (29%) plan to increase numbers whilst 68% expect to maintain current levels.

Skills shortages

• Technical and Engineering remains one of the top three anticpated skill shortage areas, joined this month by Professional/Managerial and the return of Construction Workers.

“Recruiters also have a major part to play in connecting employers to untapped talent pools”

 Kevin Green
Chief Executive, REC

Source: REC