Research completed by the British Beer and Pub association have announced that up to 52 pubs per week are closing in the UK. Local pubs were the most vulnerable as most communities have been affected by the downturn in the economy.
The closure of 53,466 pubs have added to the amount unemployed and left 24,000 people out of work. A number of breweries have been offering support to the tenants of the pubs to help put a stop to the amount of pubs closing down.
The automotive group Nissan have announced today that they will be recruiting for about 350 jobs in the North East plant in Wearside. The £200 million pound investment will be towards building batteries for new electric cars.
Nissan are yet to confirm whether the new jobs will be taken up by the 1,200 jobs that were cut earier this year.
As part of the project, 750 charging points would be installed across the region and a training centre specialising in the manufacture and maintenance of low-carbon vehicles would be set up.
Nissan’s £200m investment will be spread over five years and the new plant, which will make lithium-ion batteries, will also create and secure additional jobs in the related supply chain.
The number of people in the UK unemployed rose to 2.3 million over the last quarter, the highest since November 1996.
The number of people that found themselves out of work since the 3 months up to April had rose by 232,000, compared to the previous quarter 226 million. This means that the rate of unemployment has now risen to just short of 7%.
The estimated figure is s ill set to reach 3 million by the middle of 2010. Does this mean that the UK employment market will start to look a little brighter after this time? How long will it take the repair the damage that had been made.
I have been recruiting lately for a few positions over different sectors and i have found that every person that I have received the details for are over/under qualified. Where are all those people that i found easy to reach this time last year?
I have concerns over recruiting people who have been in senior roles as i feel that they are only looking at lower skilled jobs and salary levels temporarily until the market becomes less flooded and competitive. As you can imagine a lot of these candidates have been made redundant and just need a job and quickly. What is going to happen when the market is back to normal and the people that I have recruited are looking to recoup what they have lost. At the other end of the scale there are a lot of people who are looking for that next step in their career but are not quite there with regards to experience.
A good friend of mine suggested that business telemarketing lists can be very successful, it is a form of direct marketing and is very successful at reaching the right people. It has a history of being successful as it will source the data that you want ensuring that you have a accurate coverage of your target market.
I was talking to my friend the other day who is working for a very large organisation who are in the retail sector. The company have decided that the staff at head office are not receiving salary increases this year but there has been a increase in staff events to keep morale and productivity high.
Organised events like cinema Friday, local fares, sporting events and mixed martial arts have all been on the agenda. It seems like it has had a really positive effect on people, staff members that were talking about leaving or that were not happy seem to have changed there minds and the employee is reaping the benefitsof high employee engagemnet.
Employee engagement makes employees want to do their best work, or ‘go the extra mile’. Employees want good work, jobs that are worthwhile. More and more organisations are looking for a win-win solution that meets their needs and those of their employees. What they increasingly say they are looking for is an engaged workforce.
What sort of employee engagement have your employer got you involved in and has it worked? have you seen a improvement in your own work? What other small cost events would you like to see implemented within the company you work for?
Whilst we are all having it drummed into us that those of you that have jobs should be very lucky and those who are looking for jobs can not afford to be picky! it seems that we should all be excited about any positions that are offered to us?
There are some markets that are still very buoyant in the current climate and they are recruiting faster than what they have done over the last few years.
If like me, you are recruiting in a highly competitive market and good candidates are hard to come by, how do you get a candidate to pick you over your competitors? In the market that I am recruiting for it is a relatively young environment and learning new skills is very important. Learning opportunities and development is key for most candidates, pay and benefits are less so important if you can provide career development. Offices that are cool and trendy with nice office furniture can be very appealing.
First impressions are key for both the employer and employee and just as you would want to make a good impression if you were going to a interview you should make the effort for someone that is coming in to be interviewed.
More than 25% of students are staying at University to study as the recession hits the graduate recruitment market. Graduates are weighing up their options, the market is very competitive with very few job. Graduate recruitment London is at a all time low as finance and banking has suffered this year.
Its comes as good news as PricewaterhouseCoopers, the professional services company have already employed 125 graduates this spring and are planning on another recruitment drive this year to fill another 800 jobs in London. The head of student recruitment at PwC said that graduate recruitment is as usual in terms of the roles they are offering however there has been an 38% increase in full time applications and 30% increase in the internship programme.
Are graduates compromising what they are looking for justto have a steady job? Most graduates look for further learning and development when seeking their first graduate role. Is the current climate forcing graduates to take the first job they are offered?
For those who are lucky enough to be in employment but don’t like their jobs are looking at job opportunties on lower salary banding’s. This is putting a strain on the graduate recruitment market as most employers would prefer someone with a little work experience.
According to recent research done by the CIPD, employees are more satisfied with their jobs now than they were just 3 years ago and it seems that staff are counting their blessings during the economic downturn.
Research was carried out by 3,000 employees who took part in a satisfaction survey. The results showed that the number of satisfied employees exceeded the number of dissatisfied employees by a huge 46%.
Although it appears that more employees are happy in their jobs, the results also showed that stress levels were rising and over 37% of people were in fear of redundancy.
“Employees who are grateful to have a job at all are less likely to grumble and more likely to see scorched earth rather than greener grass on the other side of the fence. Without action to tackle some of the stresses and strains that are clear in our survey, employers could find employees’ health and well-being deteriorating, and employee engagement tailing off at precisely the time they need all hands to the pump to survive the recession and thrive in the recovery.”
These results just go to show how big an effect the recession is having on businesses and their employees. Remember, job satisfaction is a key part of employee morale. There are a number of simple ways of increasing the satisfaction level, hold meetings with employees, find out what they want, it might be anything as simple as vending machines for the staff room or a new fridge!
Finding a new job can be tough. The thought of spending nearly every hour of the day on a job site looking through jobs that aren’t that much of an interest to you can seem really depressing, but, if you need a job it needs to be done! Like I have mentioned before, there are jobs out there and organisations are still recruiting despite the recession.
If you are looking to keep costs to a minimum whilst your out of work then try using websites that offer promotional codes and promotional vouchers. They can be used online and printed off and used in store which means you will be saving your money as your buy either way. Discounts of 20-30% are being offered in a number of stores and buy one get one free offers too. If money is tight, vouchers are a great way of keeping the amount you spend, low.
Like I have mentioned previously keep your eyes peeled for jobs on the Internet, in the paper, at the Job Centre and get friends and family to let you know of any vacancies they come across. Most businesses will be using free methods of recruitment and although Recruitment Agencies may be the easy option you may have a better chance if you look for yourself.
Students that are due to graduate this year are the first year of students to have paid high tuition fees throughout their university career following the fee increases that were introduced in 2006, this is expected to be around £3000.
All students that are due to graduate from this year are expected to have a debt of around £15,700, this is a huge increase on the average debt that was £11,600 in the summer of 2008.
As we know this year is worse than ever with graduate opportunities very low and 2.1 million people unemployed the average starting salary in a graduate role is £22,300 down £400 on last year.
This was the first year that expectations for starting salaries had not increased since the High Fliers survey began in 1995.