March Jobs Report: Skills Shortages and the Implications for Recruiters

Mike Beesley, CEO at Resource Solutions Group (RSG), comments on the March Report on Jobs and the implications of its findings for recruiters. 

The latest Report on Jobs by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG has shown that the IT and Computing sector has seen the most demand for permanent staff for the second month running, despite many other sectors finding that demand has slumped. While this is positive news for the sector, the report also worryingly highlights that recruiters are finding few candidates who hold high level skills such as Java, .Net, online marketing, business intelligence and SEO, which are required for top roles.


The vicious circle that this situation could lead to is concerning, with employers prepared to pay high starting salaries to attract top talent, yet in reality ending up paying for below-par employees as candidate availability continues to decline. REC Chief Executive, Kevin Green, suggests that immediate government intervention is required to assist the next generation of workers in order to develop the skills that we are currently witnessing such a shortage of:

“The government needs to build the talent pipeline for the future by increasing funding for apprenticeships in sectors where there is demand, refocusing the Work Program to train people who have potential but who lack the skills to fill current vacancies and driving take-up for existing schemes like the Youth Contract.”

Inevitably, this situation also holds numerous implications for recruiters.  While demand for high quality permanent IT talent remains strong across the UK, clients are increasingly facing resourcing challenges in attracting the best talent as traditional recruitment strategies fail to deliver. It is now more important than ever before for recruiters to create innovative and specifically tailored talent attraction projects in order to approach the widest possible market place accurately and effectively.

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