Recruiters welcome government’s £100bn infrastructure investment
28 June 2013
Recruiters have welcomed the government’s plans for investment in Britain’s infrastructure, but warn of impending skills shortages.
Fri, 28 Jun 2013
Recruiters have welcomed the government’s plans for investment in Britain’s infrastructure, but warn of impending skills shortages.
Yesterday, chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander (pictured below) committed £100bn to projects planned to begin in 2015, and lasting to the end of the decade. The bulk of the investment is earmarked for transport, schools and energy, following George Osborne’s spending review earlier this week, which was hailed leaving winners and losers in the recruitment sector.
Ed Hoad, managing director at construction recruiter Catalyst Executive Search, tells Recruiter that the investment plans “can only be good news”.
However, he warns that if and when the projects come on stream, it is likely to exacerbate an already noticeable skills shortage.
Skills shortages are likely at white-collar professional level, he predicts. Hoad says that with many UK infrastructure professionals working on large projects abroad, in Doha, Australia and South Africa, “either they are going to have to come home, or we are going to have to find people very quickly”.
Andrew Szlarck, UK director at white-collar recruiter Project Resource, agrees that skills shortages could become a problem, with the recession having had a “real impact” on the availability of skills in the sector. This will be made worse by the number of people in the sector who are due to retire in the next five years, and are not being replaced.
He predicts that there will be a shift from permanent staff to contract staff. “If there is a shortage and rates are going up, people doing those jobs are going to cotton on pretty quick,” he says.
And while five years ago, many vacancies were filled by staff coming to the UK from abroad, “you are not going to be able to magic those skills up overnight”, he adds.
Paul Ross, chief executive officer at Barker Ross, which operates within the construction and engineering sectors, says: “This is great news for recruiters who operate in the energy and construction sectors, like ourselves.
“We've been seeing a steady increase in business anyway, particularly in the piling and engineering markets, so this can only mean more jobs, which is obviously good for our industry and the economy as a whole."
Rob Searle, commercial director at engineering and built environment job board CareerStructure.com, says: “We’re still operating in a challenging environment, but the capital infrastructure investment announced is a strong step towards the industry seeing future growth.
“Research among built environment professionals has recently indicated huge enthusiasm for HS2 [High Speed 2 rail link from London to the North of England] and it’s ability to both create jobs and improve the overall employment prospects of those working on the project. The green light from George Osborne on Wednesday on this, along with news that a ‘Cross Rail 2’ project is scheduled, will only enhance the industry's optimism.”
Recruiters have welcomed the government’s plans for investment in Britain’s infrastructure, but warn of impending skills shortages.
Yesterday, chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander (pictured below) committed £100bn to projects planned to begin in 2015, and lasting to the end of the decade. The bulk of the investment is earmarked for transport, schools and energy, following George Osborne’s spending review earlier this week, which was hailed leaving winners and losers in the recruitment sector.
Ed Hoad, managing director at construction recruiter Catalyst Executive Search, tells Recruiter that the investment plans “can only be good news”.
However, he warns that if and when the projects come on stream, it is likely to exacerbate an already noticeable skills shortage.
Skills shortages are likely at white-collar professional level, he predicts. Hoad says that with many UK infrastructure professionals working on large projects abroad, in Doha, Australia and South Africa, “either they are going to have to come home, or we are going to have to find people very quickly”.
Andrew Szlarck, UK director at white-collar recruiter Project Resource, agrees that skills shortages could become a problem, with the recession having had a “real impact” on the availability of skills in the sector. This will be made worse by the number of people in the sector who are due to retire in the next five years, and are not being replaced.
He predicts that there will be a shift from permanent staff to contract staff. “If there is a shortage and rates are going up, people doing those jobs are going to cotton on pretty quick,” he says.
And while five years ago, many vacancies were filled by staff coming to the UK from abroad, “you are not going to be able to magic those skills up overnight”, he adds.
Paul Ross, chief executive officer at Barker Ross, which operates within the construction and engineering sectors, says: “This is great news for recruiters who operate in the energy and construction sectors, like ourselves.
“We've been seeing a steady increase in business anyway, particularly in the piling and engineering markets, so this can only mean more jobs, which is obviously good for our industry and the economy as a whole."
Rob Searle, commercial director at engineering and built environment job board CareerStructure.com, says: “We’re still operating in a challenging environment, but the capital infrastructure investment announced is a strong step towards the industry seeing future growth.
“Research among built environment professionals has recently indicated huge enthusiasm for HS2 [High Speed 2 rail link from London to the North of England] and it’s ability to both create jobs and improve the overall employment prospects of those working on the project. The green light from George Osborne on Wednesday on this, along with news that a ‘Cross Rail 2’ project is scheduled, will only enhance the industry's optimism.”
- Earlier this week, recruiter.co.uk reported a major initiative to upskill young talent for the engineering and construction industries. This follows a Manpower survey earlier this year showing such talent to be the hardest to find on a global level.
