The Office for National Statistics today published its latest labour market quarterly data which has shown that the number of people out of work has risen by more than 164,000 to 1.79 million while in September alone, those seeking Jobseeker's allowance went up by 31,800 to 939,900.
Commenting on the data, Kevin Green, Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said: ìThese latest figures give good cause for concern and reflect the huge fall in demand for staff which the REC/KPMG Report on Jobs has shown over the last three months. At this stage, we need to concentrate on keeping people in work.
ìTo this end, we are calling on the Government to reconsider removing the VAT staff hire concession, scheduled for April 2009. The removal of this concession will add 400million to the cost of temporary placements in the financial services, social care and charity sectors - a cost which few employers can afford in the present climate.î
Despite the gloomy outlook, recruiters are still making many placements. In advice to job seekers Kevin Green said: ìRecruitment agencies will be looking for new opportunities for those made redundant and we urge people to snap up new opportunities, be they temporary or permanent in nature.î
Regarding advice for companies that are planning to make redundancies Kevin Green continues: ìRecruitment agencies can work with employers to move people directly into new jobs. Those that are planning to make redundancies should work with local recruiters to make this transition as painless as possible. These are difficult times, but there are still plenty of vacancies in the economy and recruiters can play a vital role to swiftly move people onto new opportunities.î
REC responds to latest labour market data
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