CIPD: We're not out of the woods yet!

Posted by Neil Davey in Recruitment on Thu, 18/02/2010 - 12:39

The UK labour market remains in an “extremely fragile state”, with the unemployment situation likely to get worse before it gets better, an expert has warned.

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics showed that total unemployment fell for a second consecutive month, albeit by a meagre 3,000 people, for the three months to December, bringing the jobless total to 2.46 million or 7.8% of the workforce.

But the number of people in some kind of employment fell by 12,000, while those in full-time work plummeted by 37,000. Numbers of part-time staff jumped by 25,000, with just over a million people finding themselves unable to get a full-time job – the highest figure since such records began in 1992.

There was likewise a rise of 70,000 in the number of workers in temporary employment, bringing the total to 1.434 million, while the number of economically inactive people jumped by 72,000, due mainly to an increase in the number of students looking to education to avoid the dole.

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Editor's Welcome

 

Hello! And welcome back as we enter 2012, with a busy year ahead of us all. With talk of double-dip recessions, a possible partial or even full break-up of the Eurozone and unemployment rates set to hit nearly 9%, topics such as organisational streamlining, staff resilience and talent management are likely to be on many an HR professional's lips over the next 12 months.
 
But to lighten the gloom here in the UK, we also have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its attendant public holidays to look forward to at the start of June. Followed by two weeks of Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September, each generating their own excitement, but also issues to work through for hard-pressed HR departments trying to sort out the multifarious staffing issues in advance.
 
So with an interesting but challenging year to come, HRZone promises to be with you, supporting you all the way and providing our usual insightful blend of news, analysis, community blogs and expert comment to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. As ever, we love to hear from you too so feel free to either post your words of wisdom to our blog section yourself or, in the case of longer, more in-depth ‘expert voice’ articles, drop me a line with any ideas to cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk.....
 
Cath Everett
HRZone Editor 
 
 
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