New data has found employer confidence in making hiring and investment decisions for their own business is stagnating at the same level it was at the height of the pandemic, despite labour shortages.
The latest JobsOutlook report from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) revealed that in April-June 2022, the REC’s confidence index – which subtracts the percentage of respondents that say they are not confident about the year ahead from the percentage that say they are – hit -13, the same level as April-June 2020 – the height of the pandemic.
Additionally, business confidence in the economy fell by 40 percentage points from January-March 2022 to -50.
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The report also found that employer confidence in the UK economy and their own ability to invest in their business dropped in Q2 of 2022, with inflation and labour shortages causing widespread concern.
Despite this, the hiring outlook stayed positive; in the short term, hiring intentions for permanent staff decreased by five percentage points to net +23, while demand for temporary workers fell by four points to net +12.
In the next four-12 months, hiring intentions for permanent staff and temporary agency workers both declined by two percentage points from the previous quarter, to +25 and +13, respectively.
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