Quarterly market update from Balance Recruitment – Industry & Commerce – January 2012

With the recruitment sector acting as a trusted barometer for the UK economy it is interesting to see how the industry performed generally throughout the last quarter of 2011 compared to our findings.

Across the industry recruiters saw a drop in the number of people placed in permanent jobs for the months of October, November and December, against growth of candidate availability.

With three months of consecutive contraction throughout this quarter, it is difficult not to become sceptical leading into a new year, however we remain optimistic and can report that we are nowhere near the lows seen in 2009 when the market deteriorated at a drastically faster rate than we are seeing today.

The Industry and Commerce division at Balance performed well throughout the months of November & December and posted a near record quarter for the company.  We can put this down to a handful of blue chip’s recruiting multiple roles in commercial finance, together with our consultants being close to those career conscious commercial candidates.  That said, the temporary division suffered with live vacancies down by 30% on the previous quarter. 

Overall, the cautiousness in hiring seems to be driven by a lack of confidence in the wider economic situation rather than a significant downturn in demand. The bulk of our clients in the Industry & Commerce sectors tell us that they still plan to hire in the coming months which so far this year we have seen to be true.