Recruiters are hopeful rather than optimistic following yesterday’s cut in interest rates.

The Bank of England has cut interest rates to their lowest levels ever. Recruiter went back to the three recruiters who were cautiously optimistic after the last cut in December.

For Ian Brooks, director at travel recruiter Gail Kenny Executive Search, a boost to people’s disposable incomes would be welcome to get the travel industry moving. Brooks told Recruiter: “These factors are good news in terms of booking holidays and the knock-on positive effect on employment in the travel industry. The counter balance to this is that if people are worried about losing their jobs then they are likely to hold off from booking their summer holiday until nearer the time.

“From a macro-economic perspective, there is general consensus that access to credit is a far bigger issue than the price of it, so from this perspective the cuts make less of an impact.

“Combining these two factors it could be concluded that the bigger and well capitalised travel businesses with recognised brands are likely to prosper at the expense of those who are less well known, or who are shouldered with excessive debt.”

Paul Farrer, chairman of media sales and creative recruiter pfj, welcomed the rate cut as it would benefit clients but claimed the root problem was not being tackled: “It doesn’t address the real problem of freeing up inter-bank lending to get the whole system going, either way, it is all the Bank of England has control of. Also on the upside it demonstrates the Bank of England’s view that a fall in inflation is to follow.

“What is less satisfying is the government’s approach. It seems clear that they haven’t got a clue what to do so try everything without doing anything. Am I alone in thinking that an obvious way to safeguard jobs is to lower the cost of employment. Therefore why doesn’t the government spend some of these trillions they seem to find on significantly reducing employers’ tax on employment.

Mark Norris, chief executive at hospitality recruiter Profile, which recruits hospitality professionals in France, China and the US, felt the previous 2% cut’s influence had been negligible and was unsure over the impact of this current cut: “I don’t think it made any difference and had very little influence. It is a tough call.” He said the impact of the downturn has been worse in the UK. “We are incredibly busy, but it is very local to the UK had certainly in the UK our business is a little slow.”

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