How The World Of Work Looks For Spring & Summer 2021

According to Recruitment & Employer Confederation (REC), during March 2021, the UK had its best two weeks for job ads since the pandemic started in spring 2020.

From an ‘on the ground’ level is this reflective of what the TeamJobs recruitment team are seeing? How are the immediate few months looking in the job space?

Rob Bruce, senior recruitment consultant, says, “Last year it was tough and what happened were gaps started to open up. What is happening now as we move into spring, within the permanent marketplace, is that roles are becoming more commonplace. Roles within the supply chain such as production engineers, manufacturing engineers, sales managers are happening. What we are seeing is that processes are starting again and when that happens, orders potentially come through and filters through to the shop floor. Ok, it’s hard work, but the signs are there, in terms of interest, conversations and placements.”

However, whilst there is positivity over the coming months and people continuing their work following on from furlough and redundancy, there is a trend for candidates to begin to look elsewhere. Hannah Sills, head of permanent and specialist recruitment, says, “We are now seeing a category of candidates who are invited to go back to their previous jobs but having had time to reflect are now deciding to look for a new opportunity. This is something new we are noticing.”

At the end of March, the Office For National Statistics published stats that signalled the first drop in unemployment figures in the three months to January. How are the expectations of reopenings and progress looking for the industrial sector in the coming month or so? Vicki Reeks, industrial manager, says, “Whilst we have the retail sector reopening from mid-April, we are also with a time of year where we have shorter weeks and half terms. Within the temp space, I predict that we will see an immediate boom, it will become steadier and then we will start to see peaks from the end of August and from September. This is a trend that will continue.” 

We have all had to become accustomed to a volatile previous 12 months, so grand gestures for predictions for the rest of the year and beyond can be quite wide of the mark. 

A more sensible look into the immediate few months can provide a barometer for confidence and progression coming back. Jaime Rana, senior consultant, says, “I can see a positive spring and summer for 2021. It feels too early to be speculative towards the latter part of the year, but signs are encouraging. Myself and the team and seeing momentum happening and that is a great provide impetus and also enthusiasm for so many people and businesses.”

Whilst a lot of hard work and effort is still needed as the country finds its feet again, the direction that the recruitment market is heading in is positive.