Vacancies are up across the country! ‘2010 is a get well year and 2011 is a do well year!’

New Frontiers is a member of TEAM, which is a group of independently owned recruitment agencies, whose combined turnover is £1 billion. I recently chaired the London regional meeting and am very happy to report that recruitment across the country and in all sectors, except education, is doing very well.

We heard a talk which said that vacancies across the nation were up 7000 on the quarter to a total of 492,000. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 50,000 more temporary workers employed in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 2009. Price Waterhouse Cooper’s survey found that 33% of employees didn’t feel valued by employers and 23% of these people were considering leaving. Gfk NOP researches says that 6 million people in fact are planning to move jobs across the country and that there has been a 9% improvement in the job market.

New Frontiers have certainly found travel companies showing increasing confidence in hiring both temporary and permanent staff during 2010. I attended a recent business lunch, where a company owner said to me that he heard 2010 described as a ‘get well year’ and 2011 would be a ‘do well’ year! I thought that this was a very accurate description of the commercial feel we are experiencing in business at the moment.

As vacancies have risen, so the search for quality candidates has been challenging. Although companies expect lots of people to apply for their roles, many people have kept their loyalty to their companies in a recession fearing ‘frying pan and fire’. This situation may change according to the research above, but it isn’t felt in travel as yet. Many people leaving business travel left the industry altogether. A lot of travel temporary staff are not UK residents and ended up going home in 2009, putting pressure on temporary staff availability and quality.

So if you are considering a change, there are some great opportunities on the market now with stable, recovering companies making the most of the recession turnaround. New Frontiers have an exciting new service launching soon to help even more people find work they enjoy… all to be revealed in August!

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