UK unemployment is likely to rise above 3m during the recession, according to David Blanchflower, the Bank of England’s labour market expert.
His comments followed the US Federal Reserve’s announcement to slash interest rates to 0.25%, the lowest in its 232-year history.
Niche recruiter Blue Pelican Group is focusing more of its efforts on the relatively buoyant pharmaceutical sector, which has not been hit as hard as other sectors by the economic downturn.
Specialist professional recruiter Hydrogen Group says “the uncertain macro-economic environment” has continued to make trading conditions difficult, particularly across financial services, one of its core markets.
The London 2012 games will create 30,000 jobs, the government is due to announce later today, according to the Metro newspaper.
Elsewhere, high-end supermarket Waitrose has announced that 4,000 new employees will be joining the John Lewis Partnership.
A new jobsite, search.co.uk, which only charges advertisers for ‘quality’ applications within targeted geographic limits, has been launched.
While opportunities fall away in Dubai, hospitality recruiters see Abu Dhabi, the US and Africa as growth areas for the sector this year.
Mark Norris, chief executive at Profile, told Recruiter: “Dubai has an eerie feel about it, as many of the cranes have fallen silent and a good few projects have gone on hold.
Medical agencies will no longer have to go through NHS Professionals when supplying medical locums and doctors to the NHS.
A bulletin sent to agencies says that from 1 April NHS Trusts “will deal directly with your agency in regards to the booking of your staff”.
The Interim Management Association (IMA) has launched the IMA Institute, giving interim managers individual membership of the IMA for the first time.
Jason Atkinson, deputy chair of IMA, told Recruiter that the Institute was “the most important initiative the IMA had set up since its founding 20 years ago”.
Tom Coulter Management consultant, Discover Retail
The annual National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS) surveyed over 50,000 online jobseekers. The survey shows that one in seven jobseekers exclusively use the internet to look for jobs, a figure up from one in 11 a year ago and more than double the figure of one in 16 in 2007.