Recruitment Advice

The levels of unemployment are set to rise this week past £2million and it is expected to continue to rise all year.

Analysts have predict it will reach 3.3million before the jobs market recovers from the recession. The number of people looking for work, including everyone who is not eligible for benefits had reached almost 1.98million when the figures for the quarter to December were released last month.

New figures to be published on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics are expected to show more people are now out of work than when Labour came to power in 1997, when the total was just over two million.

Morrison’s the supermarket chain have today announced that they are making good progress and there annual Pre tax profits are up by 7%.

Last year the chain bought 38 of the Co-operative Group stores and opened nine new stores in the UK. The plans for this year are expected to include 350,000 square feet of new retail space in addition to the stores it had bought from the Co-operative Group.

The group have said “We have identified significant potential to attract new customers and will focus on space growth in order to take us from a national to a nationwide company,”

The increase in store openings will lead to more job openings in store and for the head office support staff.

Thousands of people across the UK are said to be taking on second jobs to afford a better lifestyle rather than cutting back.

A study conducted by AXA insurance has shown that people are sending their C.V’s to recruiters and businesses looking for further work, just to top up their salaries. The figures have shown that 15% of relatively high salary households have been forced to get a second job or to send a partner who was not previously in employment to get a job.

The need for a second job for a social life and a holiday is high on agenda as many people have not had salary increases this year and many have seen salary cuts.

For many of those who are unemployed and families with very high out goings, the need for a second or third job is becoming mandatory. Reports have shown that families missing payments on mortgages are receiving grace period from their lenders before debt collection companies are stepping in to get the payments.

Families that are looking for second jobs are looking for roles that they can do around there normal working hours. Fast food chains that are recruiting in the thousands are becoming the favourable option.

The government are planning a new training initiative that will help professionals who have lots there job during the economic struggle in becoming teachers.

Jim Knight the Education Minister is expected to make an announcement today which will help professionals will have the opportunity to complete a six month teacher training programme rather than the twelve month programme which is already in place.

Other opportunities are leadership schemes which will be promoted to those who have had several years professional experience in fields such as hi-tech industries or financial services. This could be opportunities for people who want to become headteachers  and they could see this happen in as little as four years. This opportunity is set to be available for up to 200 people.

The staff members at Jaguar Land Rover have been working closely with the companys senior partners in deciding what is the best option whilst the company are working through struggling times.

Jaguar Land Rover said the deal with its workforce would save about £68m as the company battles with the global downturn in automotive markets.

The changes in the agreement  will see staff members at the sites in Castle Bromwich and Halewood will do a four-day week and also accept a pay freezes until 2010 in exchange for the company’s agreement that there will not be any compulsory redundancies among non-management employees for two years. Salaried staff have agreed a three-hour extension of the working week to 40 hours and a pay freeze.

ITV have announced today job cuts of up to 600 people, 150 of the jobs will be lost in Leeds, while several hundred are expected to go in London. It has been reported that ITV have been hit by a sharp drop in traditional advertising methods.

ITV’s cost-cutting measures include:

• 600 jobs to go across its businesses
• Plans to sell Friends Reunited. ITV bought the social networking site for £120m in December 2005. It is now valued at about £40m
• Plans to sell its online business directory Scoot
• Closure of ITV Local broadband service, which provides local news content, as a standalone business
• Considering options for its SDN business, which leases space on Freeview.

New Deal is a key part of the Governments Welfare to Work strategy. It aims to give unemployed people new opportunities to train and gain work experience, so that they have the skills you want. This is a new initiative to help businesses that are suffering from staff shortages.

Most businesses are overwhelmed with the responses from there recruitment advertisements and having to spend time sifting through C.V’s.

The benefits of looking at New Deal as a way to meet your recruitment needs are:

• All people involved have been assigned a personal advisor who does a thorough assessment of their qualities, skills and experience.
• They have attended training sessions to fill the skills gaps in there experience
• They are genuinely interested in your role as there advisor will only put them forward for roles that have the qualifications for and are interested in that area.
• There is a financial benefit to the company

If you recruit people from New Deal 25 plus or New Deal for Young People you may be able to get financial through an employment subsidiary.  The subsidy is paid for 26 weeks and the payment brackets are:

New Deal Plus

• £75 per week for each person placed if the vacancy is over 30 hours per week
• £50 per week for each person placed if the vacancy is between 16 - 29 hours per week

New Deal for Young People

• £60 per week for each person placed if the vacancy is over 30 hours per week
• £40 per week for each person placed if the vacancy is between 16 - 29 hours per week
• Grant available of up to £750 towards the cost of a agreed training certificate/qualification.

There has been a decrease the in the number of applications for work from the A8 countries within the UK, since they joined the European union in 2004. The number of eastern Europeans registering to work in the UK has fallen by 24,000, official figures show.

The A8 countries are Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic. Government figures show that there were 29,000 applications from workers during the last three months of 2008, this is down by 53,000 based on the same time period in 2007. Overall the biggest drop in applicants came from Poland where the figures dropped from 36,000 in 2007 to 16,000 in 2008.

The drop in figures from nationals from the A8 countries will help the high level of unemployed workers from the UK over 2009.

The downturn in the economy has led to a huge recruitment drive in teaching, according to new figures from the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).

New applications for teacher training schemes have increased by more than 10% between September 2008 and February 2009 compared with the same period last year, while recruitment enquiries have risen by 45 per cent year on year.

More people are also considering teaching the more difficult subjects like science and maths maths, it has been reported by the TDA that these subjects have traditionally been more difficult to recruit for. Applications to teach maths were up by 25 per cent and science by 23 per cent on the previous year.

The Royal Bank Of Scotland have announce today that they have endured the largest annual loss in UK corporate history standing at £24.1 Billion and is set to receive more of the taxpayers money.

Tens of thousands of jobs will be put on the line this week when RBS unveils plans to dramatically cut costs and sell up to a quarter of its businesses in a desperate effort to stave off full-scale nationalisation.

It will come to no surprise to RBS employees who are wondering whether they will still have jobs in 6 months? There have been signals that more job may be axed on top of the already planned cuts of 2,000 people. It is now looking that there will be as many as 20,000 job loses which could fall heavily on the banks 80,000 strong workforce in the UK.