Quarterly market update from Balance Recruitment - Industry & Commerce - July 2011

It has been a turbulent time for much of the high street throughout Q2. With inflation high and pressure on disposable income mounting, retail sales volumes are expected to be worse than during the depths of recession. We have also seen the collapse of some of the UK’s best loved brands with TJ Hughes, Jane Norman and Habitat amongst the high street casualties.

There has been little in the way of senior financial appointments at the larger, more established retailers, however, with a number of our SME high growth consumer brands reporting strong sales and looking to expand into Europe, there have been new opportunities created at the newly qualified to middle management level to support such growth.

Our retail division has actually posted a record quarter to which we can thank those newer brands, some of which have made a recent entry to the UK to ‘test the European market’. It is these ambitious and fresh brands that have made waves in recent months and strengthen the need for business-facing accountants to drive growth.

Across sectors, the consumer teams at Balance have seen marginal growth throughout Q2 and with the imminent opening of Europe’s largest shopping centre to coincide with 2012, one would hope that the high growth younger brands will continue to hire commercial finance professionals into their business.

The UK jobs market as a whole saw the slowest level of growth in permanent recruitment for seven months in May, with the deceleration continuing in to June. The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) recently reported that June saw the slowest month of growth for 22 months. Looking at it from a slightly more positive angle however, the overall number of successful permanent placements has continued to expand (for a 23rd consecutive month).