UK hiring confidence falls, with retail workers suffering most
Recruiters' confidence in the UK economy has declined to the lowest since the EU referendum.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s measure of confidence in the economy fell to -20 in the three months to January from -14 in the previous report and the lowest since the survey started in mid-2016.
“With employers’ confidence levels at a low point and hiring intentions for both permanent and temporary staff dropping in today’s survey, there can no longer be any argument: uncertainty is damaging for job creation,” REC chief executive Neil Carberry said.
The weakening trend seen in the survey appears to be affecting hiring decisions in respondents’ own firms. Employers’ confidence in making hiring and investment decisions declined by 3% from the previous month to 5%, the lowest level recorded since June 2016.
Alongside the fall in confidence in making hiring decisions, forecast demand for permanent employees in the short-term fell by 4% to +17%, and in the medium-term fell by 6% to +25%, compared with the previous month.
Another survey on Wednesday from the Resolution Foundation found that the retail sector now has the highest rate of redundancies in any sector of the British economy.
The study found that the share of employee jobs that are in retail has fallen from 10.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2018, implying that there are over 320,000 fewer employee jobs in retail today.
Of those leaving the retail industry, 31% of people become unemployed, compared to a cross-sector average of 26%.
Daniel Tomlinson, research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Life has become tougher for those leaving retail, who are more likely to find themselves unemployed – and for longer, too.
“While policymakers can’t reverse major and long-lasting changes in how we shop, they can and should focus on the people and places most affected.”