KPMG and REC have recently released July’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 current climate.

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

• Robust demand for staff drives an unprecedented increase in permanent staff appointments
• Availability of workers deteriorates at a record pace…
• …leading to a sharper rise in starting pay
• Permanent Placement Index increases sharply from 67.4 in May to the highest it has been at 71.2 in June
• Temporary Billings Index also increases from 61.6 in May to 63.4 in June

Commenting on the latest survey results, Neil Carberry, CEO of the REC: “Recruiters are working flat out to fill roles across our economy. The jobs market is improving at the fastest pace we have ever seen, but it is still an unpredictable time. We can’t yet tell how much the ending of furlough and greater candidate confidence will help to meet this rising demand for staff. In some key shortage sectors like social care, hospitality, food, driving, and IT, more support is likely to be needed to avoid slowing the recovery. That means supporting transitions into growing sectors through unemployment support and new skills programmes, as well as making sure the new immigration system reacts to demand, as promised. But it also means that hiring companies need to re-assess their workforce plans. In a tight jobs market, working with professional recruiters to position your firm as an employer of choice is a must.”

Also commenting is Claire Warnes, Partner and Head of Education, Skills and Productivity at KPMG, said: “June’s data confirms that momentum in the jobs market continues to surge, with improved business confidence leading to record high recruitment activity. As we move towards the final easing of pandemic restrictions, permanent role availability increased at the quickest rate since the survey began in 1997 and temporary roles rose to the greatest extent for 23-and-a-half years. But for the fourth month running, we’re seeing a decline in the availability of candidates to fill all these new roles and the most severe deterioration for 24 years. We need action from businesses and government to reskill and upskill furloughed and prospective workers now more than ever, as the increasing skills gap in the workforce has the potential to slow the UK’s economic recovery.”

Andrew Brindley, Director of AJ Recruitment: “Yet again we’ve had another month of record job growth rates across all sectors of the market, clearly signaling how challenging it is going to be for companies who are hiring as we head towards freedom day on 19th July 2021. There are nearly 1.6m job adverts currently advertised and the feedback we have received from the major job boards is that they have never known such high demand for candidates. It is important to review your recruitment plan and work out where you are going to get your quality candidates from. There are still 400,000 people on furlough from the pandemic, so now is the time to reskill and upskill these individuals as not all of them are likely to return or want to return to their old roles.”

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.

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, 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 within Social Care. 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.

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