Mon, 10 Jan 2011
Many businesses have learnt lessons from the last recession and opted to retain their best staff during the current downturn.
This is according to chairman of the Association of Recruitment Consultancies Adrian Marlowe, who explained employers "have been quite savvy" with how they reduce costs.
"Rather than lose people that they have a valuable relationship with in the form of their existing employees, they are cutting back the hours of work and days of work, rather than losing their relationship altogether," he explained, adding this was a "very wise" move.
As a result, the level of unemployment has been lower than it would have been if companies had taken the same approach as they did during the last recession, he observed.
However, this does not necessarily mean a return to full employment among the country's workforce will be any quicker, Mr Marlowe said, as the current availability of vacancies is 480,000 compared to the unemployment level of 2.45 million, meaning just under 20 per cent of the total positions needed are actually on offer.
"This would indicate that a return to full employment is likely to be slow," he concluded.
Data released last week by the Office for National Statistics showed the employment rate in the three months to January 2010 to be 72.2 per cent.
The unemployment rate fell 0.1 per cent on the quarter, taking it to 7.8 per cent - the first time a quarterly fall has taken place since May 2008 - with the total number of unemployed people dropping by 33,000 to 2.45 million over the three-month period.
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