Financial News: UK Permanent Job Placement Stabilizes; Pay Growth Improves

UK Permanent Job Placement Stabilizes; Pay Growth Improves

(RTTNews) - The UK permanent staff appointments stabilized and pay trends improved in July, data published by S&P Global showed Monday.

Permanent staff appointments stabilized in July, ending a 45-month downturn, the KPMG/REC Report on Jobs said. Demand for permanent staff remained subdued amid political and economic uncertainty and higher labor costs.

Meanwhile, temp billing posted the biggest growth in the last three years as more employers sought flexible workforce solutions.

Data pointed to a fresh increase in demand for temporary workers, and permanent vacancies dropped at a slower pace in July. As a result, overall demand for workers fell at the softest pace in 22 months.

Pay growth improved in July. Starting salary inflation reached the highest in six months and temp wage growth hit a 26-month high. Nonetheless, the upturn in starting salaries remained slower than the long-run trend amid a steep increase in candidate availability.

The availability of candidates continued to rise in July, stretching the current period of increase to a nearly three-and -a-half years. That said, the rate of expansion fell to the lowest since February.

"Despite ongoing uncertainty it's encouraging that businesses are starting to press ahead with investment, which means across the board we are starting to see the data moving in the right direction," Callum Licence, KPMG UK and Switzerland Group Head of Advisory said.

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