KPMG and REC have recently released April’s edition of the UK Report on Jobs: National. This report looks at both the positive and negative trends in recruitment for all sectors, including Social Care, and how this relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and the current climate.

Please find below some of the key highlights from the report:

• Permanent placements and temp billings rise sharply amid improved market confidence
• Vacancies expand at the quickest pace since August 2018
• There is a renewed increased in both starting salaries and temp pay
• Permanent Placement Index increases sharply from 47.1 in February to 59.2 in March
• Temporary Billings Index also seen a significant increase from 51.6 in February 59.6 in March

Commenting on the latest survey results, Claire Warnes, Partner and Head of Education, Skills and Productivity at KPMG, said: “The UK job market is starting to rebound off the back of the Government’s plan to ease national lockdown measures over the coming months, with the highest rise in permanent placements in six years and a sharp increase in temporary billings. This is good news for businesses, job seekers and the UK economy, but employers are still identifying a big skills gap across sectors including IT, construction and retail, with demand and supply not matching up. That’s why as we start to look beyond the pandemic, businesses will be even more crucial in making sure prospective and current employees are adaptable, productive and ready for new challenges.”

Also commenting is Neil Carberry, CEO of the REC: “For months, we have been talking about the potential recruiters saw for a recovery in hiring as we got on with vaccinations and the lockdown did its work. Today’s data shows that even during lockdown, our labour market was bouncing back. The strong temporary recruitment trend of the past few months has been maintained, but with a new addition – the fastest increase in permanent job placements since 2015. Taken together with a long-awaited recovery in hiring in London, this is a sign that business confidence is starting to flow back, even at this early stage of unlocking. As companies start to recruit, they will need to appreciate that the labour market is still suffering from all sorts of shortages. So reviewing their hiring practices and doing things in the best way possible will matter more than ever. Inclusive hiring is not a tick-box exercise – it’s about finding the best candidate for the job no matter who they are, to help your business succeed. By working with professional recruiters, business leaders can help create fairer, more inclusive and more productive workplaces.”

Andrew Brindley, Director of AJ Recruitment: “We have just seen the biggest increase in the number of jobs in over 40 months, which is a very positive indication of where the job market will go once restrictions ease further and we gain more freedom to live our lives somewhere how we did pre-pandemic. This is great news for job seekers in particular as demand is likely to increase more over the coming months, and businesses will need to get their recruitment plans in place as we move into the summer months to ensure they are able to meet everyone’s needs.”

This report allows you to benchmark your business against the backdrop of the wider economy. I hope you find it useful to help you measure and understand where Social Care as a sector sits against the wider picture.

We want to let you know that we are here to support you, and if you would like to discuss the findings in the above report, or about how we can collaborate, please let us know. To get in touch, please email [email protected] or call us on 03305 552233!

As a specialist, family run recruitment business, we provide a proactive and consultative approach to recruitment. We help organisations to target issues such as continuity of staffing, reducing spend where you have a high volume of agency usage and supporting those who have specific talent requirements or are in hard to fill locations. We can help with any immediate staffing requirements or longer-term recruitment projects to ultimately save you time and money on agency spend.

Click here to see what our clients say about how we have supported them throughout the pandemic.