Public sector job prospects decline, recruitment survey finds

9 Dec 13
The public sector employment outlook has deteriorated in the last three months, with employers now unlikely to hire extra staff, a poll by recruiters Manpower has found.

By Richard Johnstone | 10 December 2013

The public sector employment outlook has deteriorated in the last three months, with employers now unlikely to hire extra staff, a poll by recruiters Manpower has found.

After examining plans from across 324 public sector organisations, the firm concluded there was a net hiring intention of zero – meaning there were no plans to either hire more staff or reduce existing numbers.

However, this is a worse outlook than in the last quarter, when there was a net hiring intention +1% across the sector.

The outlook was worst in local government, while prospects are most buoyant in the health service, Manpower’s sector director for government Nick Heckscher said. Seasonal pressures in the NHS, alongside protection from government cuts, have led to jobs being created.

‘The mood in the public sector going into 2014 is fairly negative,’ he added. ‘The fiscal situation and the current level of scrutiny and transparency regarding public sector life are making it hard to attract skills from outside the sector, particularly into hard-to-recruit front line areas such as social care.’

Heckscher added that a shift from permanent staff to a more flexible workforce had continued across the public sector, while specialists with commercial expertise were being sought as services were outsourced or cut.

Hiring intentions across the whole economy also fell by 1 percentage point in the last quarter, but remain in positive territory at +5%, according to the overall survey of 2,100 employers.

Mark Cahill, Manpower’s UK managing director, said continued pressure on pay, underemployment and a lack of the necessary skills among candidates meant it was ‘still an employer’s market’.

‘These issues don’t look like they will ease up much in the near future,’ he added.

Meanwhile, a survey of jobseekers has found that they favour roles in the public sector by more than three to one, due to better holiday provision and good pensions.

In a survey of more than 5,000 UK jobseekers, jobs website totaljobs.com found 55% said they would prefer to work for a public sector organisation, compared to only 16% who said they would favour the private sector.

Public sector working conditions were preferred by nearly two-thirds (62%) of those polled, while public sector pensions were named as an advantage by almost half (48%).

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