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Recruiters feel the pain as City jobs market hit
Robert Lea8 Jan 2009
The UK jobs market is shot to pieces — and it's getting worse.
That is the message from two of the country's leading recruitment firms, which today admitted the City jobs market has fallen off a cliff and that the contagion has spread to the rest of the economy.
In quarterly trading statements today, Hays said its UK business had collapsed by 22% in the three months to the end of the year. Michael Page said the Christmas quarter had brought a dive of 20% across its UK offices.
Both firms have their roots firmly in the financial recruitment industry and are signalling that the amount of business they are doing in the Square Mile and at Canary Wharf has fallen by more than a third year on year.
“The jobs market is as bad as it has ever been,” said Hays finance director Paul Venables, who said his UK offices are dealing with 3000 fewer job vacancies than they were a year ago.
“These are difficult markets. We normally have forward visibility of where the jobs market is going of between three to five weeks. At the moment we are down to just one week.
“We can't say what the outlook is with certainty but we can say the permanent job market is worsening, we can say that December was certainly worse than October and we can say that prospects are not good.”
Steve Ingham, Michael Page's chief executive, said: “Market conditions became noticeably more difficult during the fourth quarter with many jobs being cancelled or put on hold.
“The impact of the financial crisis is now evident in virtually every market and discipline in which we operate.” Recruitment businesses aim to fill greater numbers of permanent jobs in the good times but get more temps into jobs during a downturn.
The statistics from Hays and Page reveal that permanent placements have crashed nearly 25% over the past three months while the growth in temp jobs is up by just 4%. “The loss of confidence and poor economic outlook has a more marked impact on permanent recruitment as clients and candidates become more cautious,” said Ingham.
Page says its 2008 profits have slipped 5% to £140 million but the City reckons 2009 profits will crash to £75 million. Full-year profits at Hays are forecast to fall from £249 million to £189 million.
Reader views (1)
I long for the return to the days when you could pick up the Evening Standard (and other publications) and look forward to seeing several pages of job opportunities from Employers placing their own advertisements for staff rather than going through recruitment companies, of which there are far, far too many today. In my experience recruitment agencies are a total waste of time and energy for job seekers. It's far more satisfying to secure an interview and a job through one's own efforts by applying direct to an employer, and nine times out of ten proves to be more successful!
- Sharon, London, UK, 17/03/2009 23:19
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