Increases in the number of people being placed in permanent positions of employment are continuing, according to research, and it is thought that this revival is likely to endure.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation and the professional services firm KPMG found that appointments of staff to permanent positions continued to be strong throughout April. These findings are based on a job index where any figure over 50 is an increase, and the results for April were 63.2, while March was 65.2.
The professions that appeared to be seeking the most candidates were those involved with executive and professional work, followed by IT and computing, and construction and engineering.
This follows the news that manufacturing employment has increased to the highest level in over three years. UK factory activity is said to have risen from 57.3 in March to 58 in April, where once again anything over 50 illustrates an increase. This new figure overcame its prediction and is the highest reading since September 1994.
To dampen this, however, many millions of workers are now confronted with the notion of pay cuts as salaries fail to keep up with increasing living costs. The Consumer Price Index level of inflation reached 3.4% in March, compared to the average annual wage increase of only 1.9%.
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