Read. Review. Recruit. – Winter 2017/18 Edition

Welcome to our recruitment newsletter, bringing you all of the latest recruitment news. 2017 was a great year for businesses with the number of businesses in the UK growing to 2.67million (as of March 2017 - Office for National Statistics). Yet, there is a fear that the UK labour market may have peaked, as the number of people in work has fallen for the second month running. The latest ONS statistics, which look at the market for August to October 2017 depict that: • UK employment total drops by 56,000 • Basic pay growth rises to 2.3% • Unemployment rate sticks at 42-year low • More people have quit the labour force These latest statistics could make 2018 extremely challenging. More people are either not working or looking for a job, and with the number of vacancies continuing to grow (reaching a new high), it is going to be even more challenging for recruitment agencies to source skilled candidates and fill vacancies. 2018 also brings new changes, such as those announced at the Budget 2017 and, of course, the GDPR. To ensure you are prepared for these we bring you a Special Feature on the key announcements made at the Budget 2017 on page 4, and advice on how you can prepare your agency for the GDPR on page 12. We pride ourselves on bringing you the latest recruitment news and hope you find this edition useful, as always if you would like to submit an article to feature in our next, please get in touch.