Job seeker confidence remains high

UK job seekers have high levels of confidence and are increasingly recognising their worth amid the current skills shortages, finds a new report.

According to the latest Robert Half Jobs Confidence Index (JCI), pay sureness in the workforce increased 70.1 points, returning to positive territory for the first time since Q2 2022.

The overall confidence reading also increased to 47.2 – the highest recorded level since Q1 last year.

Matt Weston, Senior Managing Director UK & Ireland, at Robert Half, commented on the findings, “We’re facing a highly unusual economic climate and the BoE (Bank of England) seems to be well aware of that in view of the cliff-hanger decision to halt interest rate rises for the time being. And despite the labour market showing marginal signs of loosening, there is still enough scope of concern with wage growth surpassing inflation.

“Recent economic data published last week revealed the UK unemployment rate rose, the number of people in work decreased and vacancies fell below one million for the first time in two years – a clear loosening of the historically tight labour market.”

Matt added, “Nonetheless our Jobs Confidence Index is being driven by positive candidate sentiment and wage inflation. The consequence of this is job seeker confidence is perhaps the most pressing issue if you are trying to hold onto your valued employees.

“We’ve seen over the course of the last year or so an unusual behaviour in the workforce. Traditionally reports of recession and significant changes in inflation or interest rates are pre-empted by job losses and uncertainty from the workforce.

“This hasn’t happened, largely due to the significant lack of skills that the country is facing. With job seeker confidence and pay sureness increasing in the workforce, businesses have two challenges to manage – flight risk of existing employees who know their worth seeing how wages are rising, as well as attracting the talent they critically need at a cost that is in line with current budgets.

“As we warned back in June, there simply is not enough talent in the UK to satisfy the demand in the UK labour market. One thing I can predict, though, is the trend of decreasing vacancies will lead to more candidates per vacancy, which will inevitably give hiring managers more choice for a while.”

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