31 March 2008
Bleak employment outlook in the UK, but SA faces its own problems
While the outlook for UK employment is at its weakest for 15 years as
companies cut back on their recruitment plans - according to figures from
global staffing giant Manpower – South African companies are looking for staff, but just cannot find them.
This is according to Karen Geldenhuys, MD of ICT-focused recruitment company, Abacus Recruitment.
Geldenhuys said that a recent press article in UK-based recruitment publication, www.UKcontractor reported that UK confidence had fallen across most regions and economic sectors. Its survey of 2,200 employers revealed that almost nine out of 10 had no current plans to take on new staff.
The poll found that only nine per cent of all companies questioned said
they expected to take on extra staff, while three per cent planned to announce
redundancies.
"Employer hiring confidence continues to weaken with the balance of
employers taking on new staff at a pace we have not seen in 15 years,"
said Manpower managing director Mark Cahill.
"Concerns about the strength and performance of the UK economy, coupled
with recent worries about the stock market and consumer confidence, are
having an impact - in particular in the finance and business services
sector."
But in SA, while business confidence is at an all time low, companies are looking for staff – but cannot find them. “We are not finding the recruitment market bleak, we are just battling to find the right people for the jobs advertised. In SA empowerment equity is having a strange turn of events. We are faced with a bleak skills shortage and yet we, as recruiters, are further hamstrung because we cannot recruit the staff that is needed. We understand the government’s empowerment goals, but we are facing a critical situation – there are posts that remain open because we cannot supply them with so-called empowered staff members.
“Times are tough in the UK and the sub-prime mortgage debacle has upset financial markets worldwide, but we are facing other challenges in SA, besides these globally-created ones Black empowerment creates its own micro economy imbalance and something that goes beyond the high oil costs and international financial knock-on affects. Government, we suspect, needs to take its foot off the accelerator in terms of black empowerment. We have to stay congnisant of actual needs on the ground in the economy.”
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The following is a list of news articles which has been published as press releases by Abacus Recruitment.
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