Although the slowdown in financial sector recruitment that was evident last year has not abated, the situation in the UK is not as bad as it is in Middle East or the US.

The latest data supplied by the quarterly jobs barometer from eFinancialCareers shows that job opportunities in global financial markets fell in the first quarter of this year.

In the UK, there were 2, 923 financial job postings in the first quarter of 2012. This compares with 3,270 in Q1 last year and gives a decrease of 11%.
The year-on-year decrease in the US was 13% and in Central Europe and in the Middle East the drop was 14%. Asia Pacific did slightly better than the UK with a fall in job opportunities of 10%

However, the drop in monthly vacancies between the final quarter of last year and Q1 this year was slightly better at just 8%.

eFinancialCareers managing director, James Bennett, said that companies have been focusing their efforts on restructuring and only replacing critical members of staff. Companies throughout the world are still extremely cost conscious and are therefore concentrating on finding ways to improve efficiency and productivity.

Meanwhile, the CBI expects to see the UK economy begin to grow in the second half of the year. However, the QBE thinks it will take at least two years before the economy recovers. Despite the pessimism over the economy, 34% of professionals surveyed by QBE expect to increase their headcount before the year is out.

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The results of a recent survey of SME owners on their hiring intentions for 2012 provides a disturbing outlook for 2012.

1,000 SMEs were questioned by Huddlebuy, the discount site, and two thirds of them said they are not planning to employ any new staff this year.

Job seekers in the North of England, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales will find it extremely difficult to find work as 70% of small businesses said they would be unlikely to employ new staff in 2012. In the south, 60% of SMEs are not planning to increase their headcount this year.

Economists expect unemployment to increase significantly over the coming months and could reach 2.9 million by the summer. The public sector is making redundancies twice as quickly as originally predicted and the private sector is unable to create enough jobs to absorb them.

The biggest concern amongst business leaders is the UKs youth unemployment rate, which is currently standing at 22%. This is expected to rise further as business confidence falls and the number of entry-level vacancies drops.

The deputy director-general of the CBI, Neil Bentley, said action is needed now to prevent a lost generation of youngsters. The government’s £1 billion youth contract will create apprenticeships and placements but more still needs to be done.

The MD of Pertemps recruitment, Carmen Watson, said training providers should focus on getting young people ready for work and into appropriate roles. Employers also have a role to play and they should ensure new employees receive the mentorship they need to get used to a new working environment.

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A recent survey by Save the Children and the Daycare Trust revealed that some British parents have to spend more than 33% of their income on childcare and this is preventing many women from returning to work and piling financial pressure onto parents.

The REC responded to these claims last week by highlighting the important role specialist recruitment agencies play in delivering a flexible childcare workforce.

The Chair of REC Childcare, Judith Ivers, explained that the cost of childcare is often a major barrier to a parent going back to work. Specialist childcare recruitment agencies provide parents with high quality, affordable childcare.

In addition to considering the cost of childcare, we also need to make sure that there is a pool of properly vetted, suitably trained childcare workers, she continued. Childcare recruiters provide us with this peace of mind.

An increasing number of parents in Northern Ireland are being pushed into poverty due to soaring childcare costs. They spend an average 45% of their income on childcare. Some families on low incomes are having to turn down jobs and others are thinking about leaving their jobs because they cannot afford the cost of childcare.

Whilst parents say they need to work, childcare costs are eating up such a large proportion of their income that nearly 25% are now in debt as a result. One Northern Irish mother said that it was hard to find affordable childcare and if she had to pay for a child minder or private nursery there would be no point in her going out to work.

If the government wants to persuade parents that working is the way out of poverty, it needs to make sure effective and affordable childcare support is available.

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The latest Job Index from Reed showed an increase in opportunities for newly qualified accountants last month.

Although there was little movement in the rest of the jobs market, there was a 5% increase in new accountancy jobs in August. According to Reed, the past year has seen an increase of 22% in demand for qualified accountants, and an increase of 34% since the Index came into being in December 2009.

Despite the increase in opportunities, salaries for new qualified accountants remained unchanged in August. Compared to the recruitment market as a whole, this is still an improvement as the Salary Index sank to 97, 3% below the benchmark set when the Index started.

The non-qualified Accountancy Index is also outstripping national figures at 28% higher than it was this time last year.

Martin Warnes, Reed.co.uk’s MD, said it was really striking to note the increase in demand for qualified accountants last month when all other areas of the economy remained flat.

The service sector in particular is suffering at the moment. The latest Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers index fell from 54.4 to 51.1 in August. This was the largest drop in ten years as economic uncertainty in the Eurozone continues to harm the FTSE and consumer confidence is eroded by rising inflation and constrained incomes.

Nick Jones from World First currency brokers said that a fall had been expected but the extent of the decline was a real shocker. The services industry is still slightly growing, he continued, but any more shocks to consumer confidence could see the sector contract and threaten the third quarter’s GDP.

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Maureen Blenkharn from leading Scottish recruiter McAdam King said surveys which claim that discrepancies exist between male and female executives’ pay do not help the cause of women.

One such survey suggested that the gender pay gap could be as high as £10,000 per year but Ms Blenkharn warned that those sort of comparisons did not paint an accurate picture of working practices in recruitment.

She said that in her experience employers just want to find the right candidate and offer the same package to both men and women. She went on to say that McAdam King works with major financial services, manufacturing and oil and gas firms and it’s not possible to imagine a situation where companies would take a different approach to salary negotiations because of gender.

The CMI recently published research claiming that it will take 100 years before women executives receive the same pay as men.

Kay Senior from Badenoch & Clark said that if this is true it is very disappointing and must be addressed. She also claimed that men were proactive when it comes to pay and women should adopt the same attitude. Almost 75% of women do not know the market rate for their position, she said whereas 34.5% of men knew exactly what they should receive and were prepared to make sure their employer was aware of it.

She finished by saying that organisations must address the gender pay gap but it was just as important for employees to understand the industry standard for their job and communicate regularly with their employer about their salary.

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Accounting firms could find themselves without key members of staff as more than eight out of ten employees, including accountants for contractors, are considering changing job.

Definitive Consulting, a City recruitment specialist, recently surveyed senior executives and discovered that although 65% thought their employer successfully retained staff during the economic crisis, less than 10% said they have been very successful at keeping employees happy and engaged since the recession ended. And only 8% were very confident that their employer would make the correct people decisions whilst the recovery was still ongoing.

As a result of these negative feelings, 82% said that unless they are guaranteed a salary increase and a bonus, they will move to a new employer within 12 months. Out of those, 22% said they were ready to move immediately and 43% said they plan to change jobs within the next six months.

Almost two-thirds of the survey’s respondents said their employer doesn’t appear to be following a clear employee retention plan. Instead they are reacting to circumstances and making high counter-offers to encourage employees to withdraw their resignations.

The report went on to point out that employers seem to have learnt from the 2001 downturn when redundancies led to a skills shortage and high wage inflation. Instead, firms implemented salary and bonus freezes, long term leave and secondments to reduce costs during the economic crisis.

The MD of Definitive consulting, Darren James, said this strategic approach seems not to have extended into the recovery period. Employers need to stabilise the situation as a matter of urgency to stop key employees jumping ship.

Employers may want to bear in mind that the small business community values the advice of accountants highly. 48% of respondents to an unbiased.co.uk survey said that accountants helped them save money, 47% said they helped make sense of the UK’s complex tax system and one in five admitted they were their most valuable source of advice.

More than a quarter of the small business owners questioned said they had more time to focus on running their business if they used an accountant and 10% said they had more free time to spend with family.

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The latest ‘Employee Outlook’ survey from the CIPD suggests that UK workers are feeling increasingly insecure about their jobs.

21% of employees now think it is likely that they will be made redundant as a result of the recession, a rise of one percentage point on the previous quarter.

Not surprisingly, the highest level of concern is found in the public sector, with 30% of employees believing they are likely to lose their job. 27% of those in voluntary sector share the same sentiment but only 19% of private sector workers express concern.

Job satisfaction fell five points during the quarter to +34. Employees in the voluntary sector are most satisfied whilst those in the private sector are least satisfied.

The survey also discovered that 24% of respondents were looking for a new position with a new company, up from 19% in the previous quarter.

Research from staffbay.com suggests that figure could be even higher. It claims that since the two consecutive bank holidays, there are now four times the normal level of people looking for new employment.

The founder of the online recruitment platform explained that bank holidays give us the chance to reflect on our career path and back to work blues hit people strongly enough to encourage them to apply for new positions.

However, according to the latest Reed Job index, there was a 2% drop in vacancy numbers last month. Since December 2009, 25% more job opportunities have been created in the private sector and year on year demand is 22% higher.

Demand in banking and leisure and tourism fell back last month whilst customer service, engineering, IT and manufacturing were among the sectors to record an increased job demand.

The bank holidays may have played a part in the drop in demand as UK businesses experienced a disjointed period with the two long weekends, suggested the MD of reed.co.uk, Martin Warnes.

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It is unlikely that city hiring this year will reach the heights of 2010, according to recruiter Robert Walters.

Chief executive, Robert Walters, said that last year banks were correcting from the savage cuts they made during the economic downturn. They needed to re-staff quickly but that was a one-off and we now need to wait and see what they’ll do next.

He also commented that the hiring process was starting to take longer. Employees are unsure of their worth and complex variations in salary packages are confusing, he pointed out.

Robert Walters placed 2,000 City workers in 2010 and has seen a 10% rise in net fee income in the first quarter of 2011.

Large recruiters report a buoyant demand for financial staff, in particular those with experience in risk management and regulatory functions. However, much of this demand is due to churn as people look to change employers. Some analysts have predicted that banks will reduce their headcount by between five and eight per cent this year.

Ambition recruitment consultants say that workers in the City pay the same amount in taxes as the whole Scottish population. Its research found that Square mile staff paid a total of £11 billion in NI and income tax, equal to the remittances from the entire workforce north of the border and 7% of the UK total.

Ambition UK’s managing director, Simon Lynch, said that City workers have been subjected to a torrent of abuse in the last few years but they make a very valuable contribution to the public purse.

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Accountancy recruitment is continuing to increase according to the latest Ashdown Group Jobs Index.

The profession registered a 13.52% rise in recruitment during December and January and a 5.95% increase last month.

The BCC and the CBI have predicted Q1 economic growth and as business confidence returns to the marketplace companies will be looking to increase their headcounts. Financial professionals will be in demand as their numerical ability is vital for businesses looking to implement sustainable growth strategies.

Ashdown’s director, John Lynes, said it is not clear whether churn or departmental expansion is responsible for the increase in vacancy numbers. He pointed out that the considerable growth in online recruitment has made it easier for financial professionals to apply for new positions. Whatever the reason, more accountancy positions are now available.

He continued by saying that unless large numbers of accountants are quitting the profession, the trend points to new hirers. This bodes well for contractor accountants this year, both in terms of prospects and the ability to command higher rates.

Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are concerned that limited company contractors may be receiving poor business development and marketing advice from their accountants.

On the whole, accountants do not understand marketing and business development. Robert Craven, a marketing consultant, said a lot of accountants appeared to be interested solely in surviving and are making no attempt to win new business.

It has been suggested that this lack of interest in marketing could lead accountants to give aggressive cost-cutting advice to business owners.

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A fair proportion of UK workers are not happy, according to the latest research from Badenoch & Clark.

The recruitment consultancy discovered that 22.8% of employees are unhappy in their job and 27% would not recommend their employer to others. A further 21.9% go to work simply out of routine, whilst the motivation to go to work for 10.3% is spiralling debt.

Unhappiness is highest amongst lawyers and finance professionals, such as contractor accountants. 27% of lawyers said they would be highly unlikely to recommend their firm to others looking for a position.

Badenoch & Clark has been tracking happiness since 2007. This time last year its research showed that 78% of employees in the UK reported high levels of happiness.

The survey results come at the same time as the news that David Cameron wishes to create a ‘happiness index’ measuring the wellbeing of UK employees. The aim being to prove that money isn’t everything and shift the focus away from GBP and onto GWB (General Well Being).

Meanwhile, small business owners are being urged to communicate with their employees and offer them reassurance as pay freezes continue.

Figures recently published by the ONS showed that growth in average annual earnings remained at 2.1% in November. This led to Diana Bruce, from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals, saying it was imperative for employers to tell their employees why a pay freeze still exists. This becomes even more important as the VAT increase has already affected personal spending and National Insurance contributions will increase in April. Employees who are motivated to work solely for the money will become increasingly disillusioned if salary freeze explanations are not forthcoming.

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The class of 2011 might be interested to learn that accountancy firms currently top the list of graduate recruiters, according to High Fliers Research, a market research company.

The largest graduate recruiters are PwC, Deloitte and KPMG each of which recruiters between 900 and 1,200 graduates per year.

PwC’s head of student recruitment, Richard Irwin, said he’d seen a massive increase in the number of early applications to the firm this year as students want to be first in line for new opportunities. In addition to this year’s leavers, there is also a pool of returning graduates from 2009 who are still seeking employment and this has led to increased competition. PwC still has 600 graduate vacancies but hopes to have them filled by April.

There is a 12.6% increase in graduate opportunities this year compared to 2010 but larger recruiters are still offering 6% fewer vacancies than they did in 2007. This will disappoint university leavers as this year there are 50,000 more graduates leaving university than there were 4 years ago.

Elizabeth Ewen, the head of talent at recruitment giant Michael Page International, says that qualifications alone will not be enough to secure a graduate role and university leavers should make sure they possess employability skills as well.

This is backed up by the findings of the High Fliers Research that showed that many organisations will not consider even the brightest graduates unless they possess relevant work experience.

Meanwhile, Robert Half’s Salary Guides have revealed the top finance and accounting jobs for this year. In commerce and industry, financial accountants and analysts are up at the top, along with credit controllers, financial controllers and assistant accountants. Purchase ledger clerks could also find prospects look promising.

For people who yearn for the City life of financial services and banking, regulatory accountants and internal auditors come out tops along with financial planning analysts. Assistant management accountants and client services also feature in Robert Half’s Top 11 jobs.

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Contractor accountants with clients operating in or relying on a number of UK sectors will be pleased to hear of some positive growth.

For example, new research from the EEF shows that the UK’s manufacturing sector reported strong output and good order balances in quarter three.

Manufacturers have already started hiring new staff and making new investments which will undoubtedly come as welcome news for contractors. Ms Lee Hopley, the chief economist at EEF, said that the manufacturing industry was ending 2010 on a high and this will provide the sector with a strong footing to begin the New Year. EEF also predicts that manufacturing and engineering will outperform other contributors to the UK economy in 2011.

It’s not only the UK that has witnessed this welcome boost in manufacturing either. Markit Economics recently reported that last month, the manufacturing sector across Europe increased at its fastest rate for 4 months.

But manufacturing isn’t the only sector planning to expand next year. Research by PwC shows that 28% of firms in the UK intend to increase recruitment in 2011. In addition to manufacturing, the technology and services industries should see vigorous recruitment, the study showed.

The recent Growth Review from the government also contained encouraging news for a lot of UK contractors.

David Frost, from the British Chamber of Commerce, said that enterprises will be reassured now that the focus is to return to balanced, sustainable growth. The review talks about creating a framework for growth and also acknowledges the vital contribution made by SMEs. However, it remains to be seen whether the coalition can bring down the barriers that have been preventing firms from thriving.

One piece of not so positive news regarding the service sector has come from the CBI. Although professional and business services have remained steady over the past few months, consumer services have tumbled. The CBI cited reduced consumer discretionary spending as a contributory factor along with rising costs and falling prices.

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