Online Recruitment - the bigger picture (Tim's blog)

REC Report on Jobs

Most people I speak to say that they've given up watching the news and reading papers because it's too depressing. Most reports show 'the biggest drop since records began' etc. One recent doom offender was the REC's Report on Jobs, so I thought I'd take the trouble to actually read it (I usually prefer to stick to more glamorous stuff about internet spend figures etc) and see what all the fuss is about.

Published on Jan 7th, December's Report on Jobs shows 'Permanent placements and temp billings fell at series record rates', there was a 'steep reduction in job vacancies' and a 'record rise in candidate availability'. A real holy trinity of doom, "confirming the most pessimistic projections for the UK jobs market" as the chap from KPMG (who are also involved in the research) commented. Interestingly though he went on to say that two factors not present in previous recessions - a bonus culture that might make it easier for employers to save money (by cutting back on bonus payments) and a large number of foreign workers (who might return home) might mitigate the effect of the recession on UK employees.

Most of the report is a series of indexed graphs where a monthly index of 50 equals no change month on month, anything below 50 a decrease and anything above 50 an increase month on month. The Index for permanent staff placements was 25.8, temporary billings 29.1 and vacancies advertised in December 29.5 - so less people being placed in less jobs. On the flip side, the availability of permanent staff indexed at 78.2 and the availability of temps indexed at 81.3.

The research methodology seems pretty sound. It's been done by Markit Economics since 1997 who survey a panel of 400 UK recruitment consultancies.

So in summary it does seem pretty grim, candidate availability, permanent placements and demand for temps at their lowest since 1997 when the research began. Based on this, I might join the majority and give up on the news, having said that, I've just heard someone mention "green shoots of recovery" on Five Live, so maybe there's hope after all, or maybe there isn't?

Target Jobs Breakfast News

I don't get out much these days, not to industry events anyway. So yesterday I was delighted to go to a great event that combined two of my favourite things - recruitment research and a full cooked breakfast - Target Jobs' excellent Breakfast News.

There were three speakers - Bryan Finn from Business Economics Ltd who presented a wealth of graphs on the current economic conditions, the most interesting thing that I took away was that if UK GDP grows at less than 2.5% a year then the recruitment industry suffers. There were lots of other graphs that showed US house prices, UK mortgage lending rates etc falling off cliffs - worrying.

Next was Neil Harrison from TMP who presented their research on the motivations behind and the value of graduates taking gap years. The really interesting thing from Neil's presentation was that before they went on gap years most graduates thought they'd get a job through a direct approach to an employer or via a careers service, but once they got back they were most likely to use a recruitment agency.

Finally Carl Gilleard, chairman of the AGR, presented on confidence levels amongst graduate recruiters, which, needless to say, aren't what they once were. Carl stressed the need to be confident, remain upbeat etc - this is all very fine, but I don't really subscribe to the 'if we don't talk about it and keep smiling then we can pretend it's not happening' school of thought when it comes to recession - if we're in the shit we're better off acknowledging it and working out what to do about it.

Having said that, it was a really good event, well done to Target Jobs, useful info and a great breakfast!

Good luck to ex-Lehman employees

What a week. It's been difficult to drag yourself away from the performance of the FTSE etc - which incidentally showed Michael Page as the biggest losers in terms of share price on Tuesday after Adecco ditched plans for a hostile bid.

Amongst the chaos I felt really sorry for the people at Lehmans who had lost their jobs, sure it's not a coal mine closing that will damage a whole community, but there were some really sad stories - especially from those that had deferred their bonuses for years and years into shares and now have nothing (apart from the high salaries they've been bagging). It's easy to get carried away with talk of city sharks and spivs, but is important to remember that most people that are losing their jobs in the city at the moment are decent hard working people like the rest of us. It's also interesting to see the way the media reported it, they somehow apply different standards when it's white middle class people losing their jobs - not sure what I mean - but the coverage just felt different to the coverage of a closing mine or factory - maybe a hint of schadenfreude?

Interestingly the Lehman careers site is still up and running, maybe the Barclays deal will mean that they'll keep it running, or maybe there was no one left to unplug it?

It's ok to lie on your CV, you'll still get the top job.

This has probably been done to death by now, but I can't help adding my 2 pence worth. Lee McQueen shouldn't have won the apprentice, he lied on his CV and giving someone the job after that's uncovered in the interview process is plain wrong and (without wishing to sound overly pompous) sends out totally the wrong message to people entering the recruitment process and could make all of our lives harder.

I know it's only a game show, but it is set up as a recruitment / interview process and as such should take that seriously. Lee has all sorts of faults - he can't spell (but then we all make mistakes sometimes), he can't shave, I think he bullied at least two of the female contestants and he winked (twice) at the end of an interview. Winking can be forgiven, but surely lying on a CV can't be (especially in light of the fact he actually worked in the recruitment industry)? He should have been thrown out of the process there and then and the contest opened to the more honest contestants. Please refer to my CV where you'll read details of how I invented the internet and my successful time as England manager when I took us to the quarter finals of the world cup.