Plans have been approved to complete the first phase of the Sheffield Bar Scheme, which is costing £150mn and which will create a whopping 8,000 in the area once finished.

This is great news for Yorkshire, and further evidence of the exponential growth and projects being realised at this stage of the pandemic.

Almost all sectors are seeing a resurgence in sales, footfall and new planning, and there are numerous reports that recruiters are busier than ever, trying to keep on top of the burgeoning jobseeker market.

Despite there being 1.6million people currently out of work, recruiters in some sectors are really struggling to get the right people for certain roles—particularly middle management. Statistics show that the number of current vacancies in the UK has broken all records. Staff shortages are severely disrupting sectors such as distribution, with the fallout being empty supermarket shelves and stock sat in warehouses, unable to be delivered.

Salaries are rising, in a bid to attract people into vacant roles. Some company bosses are worried that the situation could see the growth of their enterprises stall.

Though the number of unemployed remains high, and the sheer amount of vacancies desperately hoping to be filled is vast, the solution isn’t as simple as bringing the two together. Candidates looking for work don’t necessarily have the appropriate skills to do the jobs on offer—so much so that the Confederation of British Industry’s Head of Employment, Jennifer Beckwith, has urged the government to provide more training for relevant qualifications, and to also support recruiters to once again employ migrant workers.

Rishi Sunak has acknowledged the situation, saying, ‘The figures show that our plan for jobs is working – saving people’s jobs and getting people back into work. I know there could still be bumps in the road, but the data is promising – there are now more employees on payrolls than at any point since March 2020 and the number of people on furlough is the lowest since the scheme launched.’

However, the furlough scheme ending could make this apparent recruitment growth significantly reduce. In its most recent labour market report, The Resolution Foundation said the following, ‘The Foundation expects many of these employees to return to their previous role - especially those on partial furlough - upon the scheme's closure. But with the number of people starting new jobs already at record highs - and potentially hitting two million for the time ever this autumn - firms are unlikely to have the capacity to immediately take on all previously furloughed staff who do lose their job.’

Maybe, therefore, there’s more upheaval to come…

As specialists in recruitment website design, we’re heartened by the surge in vacancies within the tech sector, which shows the scale of the current demand for workers in our industry. Over the last eighteen months, as more and more companies turned to digital when their bricks-and-mortar sites were prevented from opening in the pandemic, the task to get clients online and overhaul companies’ websites has certainly kept us busy.

President of Frank Recruitment Group, Zoe Morris, confirms this, saying, ‘The demand for tech professionals right now is unprecedented. Businesses are implementing new platforms and processes that will enable them to be more efficient and more competitive, and they cannot do that without access to tech talent.

‘With this rise in digital transformation has come a vast number of new roles being created right across the cloud technology field, and the need for our support not only to help organisations source professionals with the right skills to get the job done, but retain and develop them as well, has never been greater.’

The pandemic put almost everything on hold, but it was inevitable that this wouldn’t, and couldn’t, last forever. Companies have spent the last year simply surviving, but we seem to be at the stage in the crisis where those same enterprises are now focused on thriving.

Are you in line for growth? When was the last time you carried out a review of your recruitment website? For objective, effective feedback, or for an informal chat about your digital needs, contact Fast Recruitment Websites on 01302 288591.