Key Points:
- Starting salaries for permanent jobs fell at the slowest rate since October.
- The monthly index for new permanent hires hit a near three-year high.
- Despite improvements, overall permanent hiring still shrank slightly in February.
- The index for temporary staff hiring dropped from January levels.
The job market in Britain is finally showing some positive momentum. According to a new survey released on Monday, the sharp decline in hiring that plagued the country for months is starting to ease up. While companies are still cutting back on starting salaries for permanent staff, they did so last month at the slowest pace seen since October.
The report comes from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, a major trade body, working alongside the accounting firm KPMG. Their monthly tracker measures how many permanent jobs recruiters successfully fill. In February, this gauge jumped to 49.2, up from 46.9 in January. Any number below 50 means the market is shrinking, but this new score represents the highest level in nearly three years.
Jon Holt, the chief executive at KPMG in the UK, found reasons to be optimistic about the numbers. He noted that even though hiring technically fell by a tiny margin, the underlying trends are encouraging. “The jobs market was showing its strongest signs of improvement in three years,” Holt said. He believes the market is inching incredibly close to turning positive again.
While the permanent job sector showed signs of recovery, the temporary job market took a hit. The index tracking temporary staff hiring fell to 48.0 in February, down from a slightly positive 50.3 the month before. This suggests that employers might be shifting their focus away from short-term fixes.
The survey also highlighted a shift in the workforce itself. Recruiters reported a sharp rise in the number of people actively seeking permanent positions. Meanwhile, the pool of available temporary workers grew at its slowest pace in over a year. The data comes from responses gathered from about 400 recruitment agencies between mid to late February.
