Hiring confidence on the up, but wider economy remains weak

A mixture of positives and negatives have come from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s latest JobsOutlook survey.

While confidence in hiring and investment decisions is finally improving for employers as lockdown continues to ease, when it comes to the wider economy, business confidence isn’t doing as well.

The data revealed that employers’ confidence in making hiring and investment decisions rose to a net level of +4 in the first half of July. This was up from net: -9 compared to June.

However, employers remain gloomy about the wider economy with confidence levels at net: -40 – although they are rising from month-to-month.

Unsurprisingly, with the current situation having such a negative impact for so many businesses, one in six (17%) employers had made redundancies in the year to July 2020, up from 9% in the year to June.

Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), commented, “It’s good to see employer confidence rising as the lockdown measures ease – at this stage we would expect things to be getting better month-by-month. Even at times like these, there are always opportunities out there for jobseekers. But businesses are still very worried about the overall outlook for the economy, and while some are hiring, many are having to make tough decisions around laying people off.

“It’s too early to tell how quickly the economy will recover, but there are steps the government can take to keep firms hiring and boost growth – including a more flexible skills system and a reduction in the government’s payroll tax, National Insurance, to reduce the cost of hiring. Equally, it’s vital that we secure a good Brexit trade deal and deliver a workable immigration system on time to build up confidence and business investment here in the UK.”

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