HR Magazine - Employers are increasingly cautious about hiring staff

With the Office for National Statistic's unemployment figures due for release later today, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's September Jobs Outlook shows employers increasingly cautious about their hiring intentions until the end of the year.

The survey’s Jobs Barometer, which tracks employer confidence, has fallen to a six- month low as unease and uncertainty about the impact of public-sector cuts continues to cast a shadow over the jobs market. This in turn has started to dampen expectations of possible jobs growth into 2011.

As many as 95% of employers anticipate their permanent workforce will either grow or remain the same in the next three months – a drop of four points on last month, while their expectations in the increased or current levels of use of temporary workers has gone down one point.

But long-term plans for use of temporary workers has fallen a significant six points with 76% saying they will take on more or keep their levels the same. For permanent staff hire over the next 12 months, 92% plan either to increase their headcount or keep it static, a change of three points from last month.

Employers also responded on the impact that significant spending cuts would have on their businesses with 36% in both the public and private sector saying they do not know. Another 29% in the private sector said it would have little effect but 23% of public-sector employers expect quite a serious impact. Only 3% in the private sector and 7% in the public sector believe it will have a very serious bearing on their organisations.

Roger Tweedy, the REC's director of research, said: "The results again show how elusive confidence is among employers, though the findings also show a resurgence of consumer confidence, according to the latest NOP data.

"One other encouraging trend is the continued upswing in the number of temporary workers that labour market statistics show have now exceeded 1.5 million for the first time. This again demonstrates the importance employers put on having a flexible workforce to undertake essential tasks, especially frontline public-sector roles.

"Another indication of how cautious employers are remaining is the increase in headcount freezes which have gone up to 37% from 30%. This measure is being used ahead of making redundancies or introducing reduced pay or working hours."