Engineering recruitment pushing for growth in 2010

Wed 24 Feb 2010

A recent survey of managers within the process industries show that the UK engineering labour market is shaking off the harsh economic conditions of 2008/2009 and organisations in this sector are now aggressively pushing for growth and expansion in 2010.

In a major market shift, 2010 is seeing a prominent increase in recruitment activity and a decrease in the number of companies continuing to be affected by reduced orders/production. The outlook for 2010 is very positive with predicted increases in the requirement for both permanent and contract staff.

Since 2008, the market has found it increasingly easier to recruit engineering personnel. Permanent recruitment has been stable and temporary/contract engineers have seen increased demand over the last 12 months. Perhaps the most significant repositioning of recruitment going forward in 2010 is that permanent staff will be in considerable demand compared to the previous two years. The use of contract staff is also predicted to greatly increase this year.

Now in its third year, the 2009-2010 survey was completed by managers from a broad range of industries including food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, defence, biotechnology and healthcare companies, research institutes and government departments. All were involved in recruitment and were mostly working in an HR or senior technical role.

See the full survey results and summary