KPMG and REC have recently released September’s 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:

• Permanent placement growth hits record high
• An unprecedented drop in candidate supply drives sharper increases in pay
• Vacancy growth holds close to an all-time high
• Permanent Placement Index increases from 69.3 in July to 72.7 in August
• Temporary Billings Index continues to increase from 64.6 in July to 67.7 in August

Commenting on the latest survey results, Claire Warnes, Partner and Head of Education, Skills and Productivity at KPMG: “Candidate shortages continue to plague businesses, who are all recruiting from the same pool of talent and struggling to fill gaps. While record high permanent placements and higher starting salaries mean it remains a job-seekers market, recruiters and employers have seen the most severe decline of candidate availability in the survey’s history and will be thinking about how to attract and retain new staff. This crisis isn’t going away, and the winding down of the furlough scheme at the end of September – while potentially bringing more job hunters to the market – could also add fuel to the labour shortage fire. Many businesses will have changed their business model during the pandemic, and so significant numbers of staff returning from furlough may need reskilling to rejoin the workforce in the same or another sector. Right now, businesses can lead the way by working with government and civic leaders to rapidly address the reskilling and upskilling that is so urgently needed.”

Also commenting is Neil Carberry, Chief Exec of the REC: “In August, the number of staff available to start jobs fell at another new record rate, deepening the current labour shortage. Recruiters are working around the clock, placing more people into work than ever as these figures show. Switching the entire economy on over the summer has created a unique demand spike and a short-term crisis. But it would be a mistake for businesses to think of this as only a short-term issue. A number of factors mean that the UK labour market will remain tight for several years to come. Business leaders should be looking now at how they will build their future workforces, in partnership with recruiters, including the skills and career path development. But attracting and retaining staff also requires a serious assessment of why workers want to work with the firm – from management approaches to facilities, as well as pay. Government can help too, by aligning skills offers with business needs and making sure the new immigration system works. But the government also must prioritise alleviating the immediate crisis – we’d like to see a joint forum where government departments and businesses can collaborate to tackle worker and skills shortages.”

Andrew Brindley, Director of AJ Recruitment, said: “We have all seen the empty supermarket shelves on the news or when we go shopping, and it really outlines the fact that the pandemic, Brexit and furlough have been the drivers of this and the social care sector is no exception to what has been affected over the past 18 months. The latest government figures on furlough showed that 1.6m people were still on the scheme at the end of August. All this combined has led to record demand for candidates in an already overheated job market which we have seen replicated in demand from our customers. With furlough ending this month, we may see some easing of that pressure, but it remains to be seen how much and how quickly as some of those people may not return to the job market quickly, if at all!”

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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