Jobs growth set to spurt in Summer

The second quarterly monitor of employment intentions, to be published officially by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development later this month, will show that a majority of employers (60%) plan to hire extra staff this Summer. Coming ahead of official employment and pay figures due to be released on Wednesday 16 July, the CIPD survey confirms that the economic recovery is gathering pace.

The CIPD’s second quarterly HR Trends and Indicators survey - involving up to 2,000 employers in all sectors and regions of the UK - finds that:

*Over 80% of employers plan to recruit in summer 2004 (June-August). In 58% of cases recruitment will result in an increase in employment levels.

*As in the spring quarter, the vast majority of employers (96%) who are recruiting say that at least some of the vacancies to be filled are for full time staff, while 52% are offering part time employment (up from 43% in the spring). Temporary and fixed term contracts are being offered by around a third of all respondents - a higher proportion than in the spring.

*40% of respondents expect to be employing more staff by the summer of 2005 against just 17% expecting to employ fewer: a positive balance of 23%, up from 19% in the spring quarter survey.

*More than 4 out of 5 employers (81%) responding to the survey intend to recruit staff this summer (June-August 2004).

*Almost six out of 10 (58%) employers plan to recruit additional new staff (i.e. over and above replacement recruitment) this quarter - an increase on the 53% net recruitment figure reported last quarter.

*Recruitment intentions by region are highest in London (87% of employers) and the South East (85%).


Dr John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and author of the report, comments, The economic recovery is gathering pace and the labour market is getting ever tighter as more organisations look to recruit and fewer plan to make redundancies. Despite this there is still no sign of an imminent surge in wage pressure. But with private sector recruitment increasing at a time of low unemployment, employers will have to remain on their guard to ensure that wage costs are kept under control. Failure to do so could result in higher interest rates.