KPMG and REC have recently released their January edition of the UK Report on Jobs: National. This report looks at both the positive and negative trends in recruitment for all sectors, including Social Care, and how this relates to the current climate.

Please find below some of the key highlights from the report:

• Recruitment activity continued to rise sharply in December
• Recruiters signal further steep increases in permanent placements and temp billings
• Candidate availability falls at slowest rate for eight months
• Substantial upward pressure on starting pay
• Permanent Placement Index decreases from 69.2 in November to 68.4 in December
• Temporary Billings Index increases slightly from 61.0 in November to 61.8 in December

Commenting on the latest survey results, Claire Warnes, Partner and Head of Education, Skills and Productivity at KPMG: “The UK jobs market rocketed to near historic levels as New Year approached. That’s despite it losing a little fizz with the pace of accelerating demand for staff, wage and salary growth and vacancies all easing slightly. Employers in all sectors haven’t lost their appetite to hire, but many will be frustrated by the pressure these inflationary and competitive conditions, which are likely to continue for some time, are putting on their operating costs and ability to expand. The data shows that the availability of staff is particularly pressing in the health and care sector, where demand for qualified personnel is running far hotter than availability of permanent and temporary candidates to fill roles. This has been exacerbated by Omicron, through sickness to workers and the need to self-isolate. The availability of workers is testing the resolve of employers across the economy and will likely cause distortion in recruitment patterns as businesses shift focus from long-term growth to short-term cover. However, we shouldn’t underestimate the business community’s ability to adapt to these new conditions and look to training and technology solutions to find a way forward.”

Also commenting is Neil Carberry, Chief Exec of the REC: “2022 will be the year we discover staff shortages will outlive the pandemic as an economic issue. This survey shows again how tight the labour market was at the end of last year. Demand for staff is growing across every sector and region of the UK, and candidate availability is still falling. These trends have been slowing for the past few months, but that is not surprising considering the record pace of change earlier in the autumn of 2021. Businesses need to make sure they are reacting to the long-term challenges of this market, thinking harder about their offer to staff and how to shape their future workforce. Recruiters are ideally positioned to help employers with this, and support governments across the UK on the skills, immigration and tax reforms that are needed to keep us competitive.”

Andrew Brindley, Director of AJ Recruitment, said: “This month’s report on jobs is another shot in the arm for the UK economy and the state of the jobs market. Clearly, Omicron hasn’t damped down the demand across the wider market and in some sectors, we have seen a further increase in agency usage. This is all putting pressure on wages and charge rates as there is an acute shortage of good candidates across the market. We will have further pressure on starting salaries in front line roles as we head towards April 2022, as the new rates for the national minimum wage are expected to drive these up further adding to the level agencies will charge. As we look forward to 2022 there is no sign of the demand diminishing. As the economy will surpass pre-pandemic levels it is likely these pressures will increase, and we will see that distilled down into the health and social care sector.”

This report allows you to benchmark your business against the backdrop of the wider economy. I hope you find it useful to help you measure and understand where Social Care as a sector sits against the wider picture.

If you would like to discuss the findings in the above report, or about how we can collaborate, please let us know. To get in touch, email recruitment@ajrecruitment.com or call us on 03305 552233.

As a specialist, family-run recruitment business, we provide a proactive and consultative approach to recruitment within Social Care. We help organisations to target issues such as continuity of staffing, reducing spend where you have a high volume of agency usage and supporting those who have specific talent requirements or are in hard to fill locations. We can help with any immediate staffing requirements or longer-term recruitment projects to ultimately save you time and money on agency spend.

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