Jobs and Growth?

We noted yesterday that the British Chambers of Commerce expect the UK to grow by 0.6 per cent this year. I wonder how many of our customers, or indeed our own, boards of directors would be happy with this level of growth for 2013.



As a business that is reliant on the continued growth of UK Plc to drive a growth in job creation, the prospect of prolonged lacklustre growth is a continuing concern. Our own focus in on professional roles, but we rely heavily on both large FTSE 100 customers and the wider SME market for our business. Whilst most corporates continue to hire to some degree or another, it is the uncertainty faced by our SME market in the UK that will hit growth over the year. With reports suggesting that the Funding for Lending scheme hasn’t made an impact on the access to the finance that SMEs need to deliver growth then it is difficult to see how hiring can improve without any stimulus.

Despite this, all the data suggests that the UK private sector is continuing to create jobs, although how this is happening in the absence of any real growth in the economy is leaving us all scratching our heads. We’d certainly be much more confident for 2013 and beyond if those green shoots of recovery were to grow a little more vigorously this spring. Perhaps the Chancellor will do his bit to improve the mood of business in the budget later this month; we would certainly encourage him to do whatever he can to stimulate SME growth.

That said, we continue to see a war for good quality talent in the UK, so a growth in employment through more confidence will inevitably drive wider skills shortages, particularly in the professional sectors. However, I am sure most businesses would rather address that problem than the threat of stagnation!

Nick Walrond, MD, Sanderson Recruitment