Quarterly market update from Balance Recruitment - Commerce & Industry - Temp & Interim Division - October 2011

As the Head of the Commerce & Industry temporary division at Balance Recruitment and someone who keeps a keen eye on the consumer market, I would like to share with you a market update based on our findings from Q3 2011.

Although it proved to be a good quarter for the business, the months of July and August were regarded as stop/start months due to the summer holiday season. This tends to be the case each year and directly impacts the temporary and interim market as assignments are put on hold and hiring processes tend to take much longer than usual.

The quarter began to pick up pace in September however, with a number of senior level accountancy mandates registered and this increase in activity will hopefully continue throughout the remainder of 2011 as confidence in the consumer market increases in the build up to Christmas.

A term I have heard on numerous occasions from our clients in the media and retail markets is ‘cautiously optimistic’ in respect of short to medium term business expectations. The media have been reporting doom and gloom and the possibility of a double-dip recession, however a number of businesses have recognised this period in the economy as an opportunity, and we’ve seen a number of company acquisitions of smaller niche businesses and some mergers between industry competitors.

There is no doubt that we are far from a recovered economy, however there are at least some positive signs that the market is improving, albeit slowly, and there is some optimism as we move in to the crucial Q4 period.