More than half of UK employers intend to recruit staff in the next three months, according to new research.
Today, research by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) revealed that over half (56%) of UK firms planned to hire in the first three months of 2021 – a positive sign for employment prospects.
The sectors with the strongest hiring intentions include healthcare, finance and insurance, education and ICT.
The survey also found that the number of firms planning to make redundancies in the first quarter of 2021 dropped from 30% to 20%, compared with the previous three-month period.
According to the survey, hospitality was the worst-hit sector, accounting for a third of the job losses, followed by retail. As a result of this, only 36% of hospitality employers were intending to recruit new staff, the CIPD and Adecco found.
The government’s furlough scheme, which is meant to end on 30 April, has slowed down the number of redundancies.
However, the CIPD cautioned that it could not rule out further private sector redundancies if the government does not extend the furlough scheme to the end of June, or if the British economy were to suffer any further “shocks”.
“It would be hugely counterproductive if the government’s financial support faltered, while some of the biggest sectors of the UK economy are still in survival mode,” said Gerwyn Davies from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
