New year, new job...maybe not

January 12, 2011
Posted by Dean Shoesmith

Seasons Greetings US Bloggers,

New Year, new job…maybe not

In the halcyon days of the UK recruitment advertising industry I can recall copywriting doyennes groaning when clients (like me!) clamoured to use the hackneyed strap line ‘New Year, new job’ for the next big bout of block advertising in one of the national newspapers. 

But is this going to be the case for 2011? 

UKunemployment figures produced by the Office for National Statistics on 15 December 2010 suggest otherwise. The statistics call into question the speed of the UK economic recovery as unemployment peaked at over 2.5 million -indicating the private sector economy remains insufficiently buoyant to absorb public sector job loss. The jobless rate is on an upward trajectory at 7.9% and the number of people employed in the public sector shrank by 33,000 in three months from August to October 2010. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) chief economist, John Philpott, has commented, “…positive momentum built up earlier in 2010 appears to have run out of steam even before the full impact of the coalition Government’s spending cuts and tax hikes (Value Added Tax – taxation at source to goods, products and services-  to 20%) take effect”. 

Recruitment industry experts, instead of persuading their clients to adopt more original advertising concepts for 2011, appear to be focussed on the stagnant state of the jobs market. There is concern that those eligible for work in the UK are increasingly forced to take part-time roles because they cannot obtain full-time employment. 

Graeme Leach, chief economist for the Institute of Directors, shares some of the concern, “The labour market looks very flat, and doesn’t fill us with confidence about the pace of economic recovery”. 

Let’s hope the UK Government’s initiative of 24 new Local Enterprise Partnerships will help kick-start the economy and, for my part, we see local investment cycles developed so that businesses are supported to grow whilst a number of public sector colleagues may move across sectors as we witness the biggest reduction in UK public spend in decades. 

We Brits hear that you have long-term unemployment and a flat jobs market Stateside…are the employment trends consistent both sides of the Atlantic? 

Dean