One Man's Loss is Another Man's Gain

Adding to the depressed state of the economy, the TUC is confident that the number of individuals out of work for a year or more will double by the end of next year. This will bring the total of long-term unemployed to 700,000 and the number of unemployed, in total, to just over 2m. These figures surely bring with them the concern for out of date skills and the difficulty of getting the long-term unemployed back into employment.

Chief Economist at the CIPD, John Philpott, strongly agrees, stating that the combination of the rising number of claimants coupled with failing business confidence will only be cause to further jobs cuts on top of the ones already pushing the economy to it's limits.

However, not everyone holds such a dismissal view and on the other side of the employment market you could argue that things are improving. Yes, there is no denying that the number of companies making redundancies is at an all time high. Yet the successful companies, arguably the ones which as an employee you would want to be with anyway, are going from strength to strength. The number of companies going out of business is resulting in the striving companies devouring the market share relinquished by the companies who are bowing out.

Ask a recruitment consultant in the IT industry, for example, and they will most definitely tell you that their best clients are recruiting now more than ever. Tom Hadley, director of external relations at REC, supports this view stating 'feedback from recruitment professionals on the front line of the labour market confirms that employers are still recruiting, although it is clearly a more competitive environment for jobseekers following years of an extremely candidate-driven market.

Our message to jobseekers is to speak with local recruitment agencies, find out what sectors and employers are recruiting and even ask them for some guidance on longer term career options'.

With figures showing the largest unemployment increase for over a decade, with worse predicted yet to come, in times like this jobseekers need to enhance their added value and prove that you, above the rest, can offer more. Companies are still recruiting the game just got harder.

Author:
Chris Crawford is the MD of BD Recruitment a specialist recruiter for web designer jobs, marketing account manager jobs and web programmer jobs, based in Manchester, UK.