Category: Blogs

•    Permanent and temporary placements rise 1% year-on-year

•    Permanent vacancies decline within IT and Finance
•    Average salaries dip by 2.8%   

New survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) reveals that both permanent and temporary placements have risen year-on-year (1% each). This is in line with the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which reveals that the unemployment rate remained at an 11-year low for the three months to November last year.

APSCo data, which focuses on professional recruitment, reveals notable variations between the trade association’s core sector groups. While permanent placements across engineering and IT rose (2.4% and 19.1% respectively), placements within finance decreased by 4.6%. 

Vacancies decline within IT and Finance 
Despite placements rising in December, the number of new jobs coming onto the market fell by 2%.  Demand for finance and IT staff fell across both the permanent and contract arenas with the former suffering more so than others with demand for finance plummeting by 14%.

This is perhaps unsurprising given the widespread reports in the latter part of 2016 that banks would be moving large numbers of jobs from the Capital which may very well have stalled recruitment activity.  And following Theresa May’s speech outlining the UKs Brexit Strategy, HSBC and UBS have already revealed plans to move at least 1000 jobs each from London, suggesting that this decline within financial services may well continue as we progress throughout 2017.

Average salaries down
APSCo’s figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors dipped by 2.8% year-on-year. Despite this, however, pay rose in several sectors – IT and financial services recorded uplifts of 2.5% and 2.1% respectively.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo comments:

“There is no doubt that parts of the UK jobs market has suffered in the months following Brexit – and our data demonstrates that employers continue to take a far more cautious approach to hiring.  However, it is not all doom and gloom with several indicators suggesting that the UK is faring better than expected following the referendum. The IMF has raised its forecast for economic growth this year, the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index shows manufacturing growth at a 30 year high, and the latest PwC survey reveals 89% of CEOs are optimistic about growth prospects in 2017 – up from 85% last year”.

Source: APSCo

• You should have very clear expectations in terms of skills, roles and rates/salaries – and document these fully.
• Aim to commit to pre-agreed interview timelines, with the focus on quick and effective candidate management.
• Ensure you’re team are all working to structured recruitment processes, regardless of whether you are looking for a 3 week contractor or your next permanent CTO.
• Prioritise CV screening – speed of response is critical and those customers who are sitting on CVs for 2, 3 or even 4 weeks are having a nasty shock when their entire short-list is no longer available.
• Ensure you remain competitive at all times in terms of your contract rates or salaries as well as the environment in which you are offering your new talent
• Make sure your employer brand is attractive and is well promoted, utilize all avenues to promote your brand and provide as much content and ‘touch points’ as possible for potential new candidates to engage with your brand.

If you’re in need of professional recruitment support or guidance on your resourcing plans then log on to the Certes IT recruitment website.

• May – 60.3
• June – 60.3
• July – 59.2
• August – 58.7
• September – 58.6

The demand for IT contractors is still witnessing a growth, but as the figures show the demand has seen to be dropping month on month.

In October, the UK market demand has improved with figures showing 60.3, 1.7 improvement on Septembers results and returning to results in May and June.

(an index score of over 50 signifies growth in the market compared to the previous month)

 Permanent opportunities increase 1% year-on-year
•    Financial Services vacancies up 10%
•    Contract vacancies rise by 1% year-on-year
•    Average salaries up 3.9%

Download FREE Infographic 

Professional recruitment firms now have just 1% more vacancies on their books than this time last year according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

This slowdown in demand, which follows months of rapid growth for the professional recruitment sector, is in line with the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, which found that overall vacancy numbers dipped by 0.1% in the three months to February. UK unemployment also rose by 21,000 to 1.7 million during the same period.

Financial Services strong despite uncertainty 

The latest data from APSCo reveals notable variations between the trade association’s core sector groups in terms of hiring activity. While permanent vacancies across both financial services and marketing, for example, have increased (10% and 12% respectively), IT and engineering have both recorded dips (5% and 13% respectively).
The ongoing growth of the finance and accounting sectors, which APSCo has reported in recent months, is in line with data from specialist recruiter Robert Walters, which found that demand for tax professionals across the UK increased by 8% in the first quarter of 2016 as increased scrutiny over the financial dealings of large corporations created pressure to improve transparency.

Average salaries up

APSCo’s figures also reveal that median salaries across all professional sectors continue to climb steadily, increasing by 3.9% year-on-year. This figure is characterised by notable fluctuations in terms of sector, with Financial Services, for example, recording an uplift of 8.4%. This rise in remuneration within the professional arena exceeds the national increase in salaries as reported by the ONS which found that average earnings grew at an annual rate of 1.8% in the year to February 2016 – the slowest rate of increase since January 2015.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo comments:

“While demand for professional contractors has increased year-on-year, the rate of growth is far less than we have become accustomed to in recent months, creating a perception of market slowdown. However, it is worth remembering that the employment rate remains the joint highest on record at 74.1 per cent.”

“Commentary and conjecture surrounding Europe, not least the Treasury’s 200-page Brexit analysis, has of course had a negative effect on hiring confidence. But regardless of market uncertainty, professional talent is a valuable commodity which is crucial to the success of any organisation. With this in mind, remuneration levels for skilled workers have remained strong despite the fact that hiring is temporarily cooling.”  

Contract vacancies hold 

Temporary and contract vacancies remain largely unchanged across the professional staffing market with opportunities up by just 1% across the board year-on-year. Vacancies across financial services, however, are particularly strong, rising by 30%.

Swain continues; 

“While contractor vacancies often counterbalance a fall in demand for permanent talent, the fact that all hiring activity has close to flat-lined is indicative of the extent to which uncertainty linked to the EU referendum is deterring companies from taking on new staff.”

“Britain’s service and manufacturing sectors are stalling, housebuilding is slowing and consumer confidence is at its lowest level for more than a year. It seems that British business has well and truly pressed the ‘pause’ button while it awaits the outcome on the UK’s future in Europe.”

“The exception to the rule is the Financial Services sector, where external influences and ongoing change management projects mean demand for talent remains insatiable. Predictions that up to 100,000 financial services jobs could be lost if Britain votes to leave the European Union will have deterred decision makers from creating full-time positions in the short-term, and contractors are being drafted in in droves to plug vital skills gaps.”

Download FREE Infographic  

Source: Apsco.org

Geographical analysis, based on data provided by Burning Glass, somewhat unsurprisingly indicates that 33.5% of all creative occupation postings were found in Greater London. The South East ranks second with 16.1% of creative roles followed by the West Midlands in third with an 8.1% share of total job postings.

The list of ‘in demand’ skills for creative roles is mostly dominated by coding and programming languages. However, the report suggests that the skills in the highest demand, excluding those largely specific to IT based roles, are communication, creativity and writing.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, commented on the report saying;

“London’s creative industries are immensely important to both the city itself and the sector as a whole, contributing an estimated £35bn to the economy and providing the capital with approximately 800,000 jobs.”

“The extensive funding provided by bodies such as Arts Council England, which will invest over £1bn over the next three years, continues to support creative organisations of all sizes, and adds fuel to the creative economy. While the Film Tax Relief acts to bolster the UK’s film industry by offering production companies a payable cash rebate of up to 25% of qualifying film production expenditure.”

“According to a report released last year, the total gross added value (GVA) of the creative industries in London was £34.6 billion in 2012, accounting for just under half of the UK total (£72.7 billion), so it is no surprise that demand for professionals remains highest in this region.”

Source: Apsco.org

The growth in cloud IT applications is an indicator that IT decision makers are becoming more confident in moving key services to the cloud. Revenues for the top 50 public cloud providers shot up 47% in Q4 of 2013 to $6.2B according to Technology Business Research, Tableau

In the same survey, 76% said they would deploy online productivity applications, 57% said they would deploy enterprise file synching and sharing services in the cloud, and 45% said they would deploy online social media tools.

The boost in cloud usage in IT can be seen in companies such as Oracle and VMware. Oracle has seen an increase in revenue from its software and cloud division in Q2 and the cloud service has seen in 30% growth with further increases in 2015 alone. VMware has been seeing a 16% year on year growth and “14% increase in product license revenues over the prior year period” say forbes.com

For IT departments, streaming applications from the cloud is assisting to modernise their desktop PC environment and allows it to be more manageable and cost-effective Transitioning to a cloud-centric world will all businesses to no longer need to …”buy hardware and software but [only] the hardware service and the software service, so system integration goes away and it becomes service integration…” explains Kevin Jackson, CEO and founder of GovCloud Network,

From the flexibility that cloud applications provide IT departments, it would be no surprise there will be more IT decision makers making the jump to using cloud based applications.

Source: ComputerWeekly, TechTarget, Forbes, Tableau

If you are interested in a career in cloud based technology and other application development, then why not visit Certes. We have thousands of vacancies spanning across a wide variety of roles.

Six months on from Britain’s vote to leave the EU, London underlines its continued strength as the leading tech hub in Europe

London has been ranked as the leading destination in Europe for technology-based industries. 

The UK capital scored highest in a report by CBRE that analysed the characteristics of tech clusters and explored high-performing and emerging tech cities.

Out of 35 cities across Europe, London beat stiff competition from Paris, Berlin, Munich and Madrid to top the index.

The report also identified Budapest, Bucharest and Istanbul as the fastest-growing emerging European tech cities.

The index was developed based on employment, growth and demand credentials, propensity to generate start-ups and new patents, and attractiveness for technology students and graduates.

Take-up by technology-based industries to the end of September totalled 2 million square foot, making it the most active business group in Central London so far this year.The rate of employment growth in the tech sector over the past five years has far exceeded the rate of growth across office-based employment as a whole, according to the report.

Rising occupational costs and the growing shortage of suitable office stock in London’s West End has resulted in tech occupiers increasingly favouring the City of London (City), Midtown and Southbank.

This has fuelled the growth of new technology locations such as King’s Cross and Farringdon, while Silicon Roundabout is now firmly established as a leading European market for tech start-ups and SMEs.

From 2006 to 2015, the City core (City of London and EC4) experienced rental growth of 6.3% and 5.9% respectively, while City fringe locations (such as Spitalfields and Whitechapel) recorded rental growth of 17.5% and 12.9% respectively.

Further south, Apple’s recent 500,000 square foot office leasing at the Battersea Power Station redevelopment is further evidence of London’s appeal as a tech hub.

“London is a world-class leader in the creative and technology-based industries,” said Simon Calvert, senior director, advisory and transaction services, CBRE. “Its location, political and legal structure, as well as its wide range of social and cultural attractions, makes it one of the most exciting places in the world for tech and young tech talent.

“Even with the economic and political uncertainty brought about by the EU Referendum, we believe these inherent fundamentals serve as robust indicators of London’s continued strength as a major European and global tech hub.”

Source: InformationAge

A recent survey by PayStream indicates this growing strength. 1/3 of contractors use recruitment agencies when they are looking for their next role. 73% of contractors asked had positive feedback about working with agencies and continued to state that the agencies professionalism, understanding of their skills and matching their skills to roles are what sets agencies apart from their competitors.

The survey also delves into the recruiter’s side and how recruiters work with contractors. The results collected were 44% of recruiters having given contractors advice and interview preparation. However this differs from sector to sector. The findings go further to explain that around 23% of contractors would like agencies to provide them with some form of interview preparation service, although 53% where not interested.

“In light of this, agencies may want to look at offering this kind of support more often because some contractors may not appreciate the benefit of interview preparation until they’ve actually received it.” Paul Malley, Managing Director, PayStream.

84% of contractor that were offered an interview preparation service found the service to be “very useful” or “quite useful”.

“The majority of recruitment agencies (76 per cent) preferred to find out about a contractor's skills via face-to-face interviews, with 60 per cent preferring telephone interviews and 12 per cent embracing video technologies, such as FaceTime or Skype.”  via: TheGlobalrecruiter.com

The relationship between contractors and agencies are being strengthened by the nature of the recruitment industry. Recruitment is a people business and contractors (along with everyone else) crave human interaction.

Certes relationship with our contractors is second to none. With excellent IT industry knowledge and a personal dedicated service from beginning and beyond your placement, Certes will help you find the right placement for you. Offering assistance such as ‘CV amendments’ and ‘Interview preparation’ done face to face or via telephone. If you’re in search for your next contract role, visit Certes for a wide array of IT contract vacancies across the UK.

However, many people are becoming complacent and are letting their security clearances expire, and with the Defence Security Service (DSS) having to carry out more and more checks, this can have damaging effects on your prospects.

A recent report on DSS indicated it had a backlog of more than 500,000 applicants. This means that it can take employees whose clearances have expired between six months and two years to receive their new one — an unacceptable time frame for many potential employers that have significant contracts to deliver in the short-term.

The easiest way to maintain security clearance is to take “cleared” positions with companies or government agencies and there is certainly no shortage of those job roles in the current market.

Your active security clearance is one of the hottest tickets in town so don’t let it expire!

While consulting patients, GP’s record the data which then becomes available online. This can be then accessed patients and authorised personnel.

Beverley Bryant, NHS England’s director of strategic systems and technology, said: ‘Practices are required to check and verify people’s identify [sic] before issuing access credentials and guidance has been made available to them through NHS England and the RCGP. In addition, practices should make patients aware of their responsibilities and safeguards they should apply when accessing their records.” But with everything being available online there is potential for the information to be compromised.

Dawn Monaghan, group manager at Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) public services explained ‘We see very few [breaches] that are, what you would call “malicious security issues”; where somebody deliberately breaches password protocols, cybercrime, those sorts of things… within the health sector.”

NHS England told Pulse “only patients and authorised carers will have access to online records, adding that practices must verify patients’ identities and explain the relevant safeguards.”

Dawn Monaghan also mentioned “I would suggest the cyber-security side of things, the ID-theft side of things, will start to come up the pile in health when we get proper online access to patient records. That is a real danger, and that is where security by design and security in an organised way come in.”

In a day and age where data is becoming more accessible, there is always a fear that sensitive data can be compromised. However, with the right security protocols such attacks can be avoided.