THE availability of candidates to fill permanent job vacancies in Scotland fell last month at the sharpest rate for a year, a survey of recruitment consultancies reveals.
The report, published today by Royal Bank of Scotland, also flags further sharp rises in pay for both permanent and temporary staff placed by recruitment agencies amid the supply shortage.
Nick Stamenkovic, economist at Royal Bank, highlighted the survey’s finding that demand for labour had last month continued to grow faster in Scotland than in the UK as a whole.
He said: “That is a trend that has persisted for some time.”
Mr Stamenkovic added: “The demand side remains robust but there does seem to be increasing evidence of supply shortages. That, in turn, is leading to a rise in wages across the board, both permanent and temporary workers.”
He noted demand for labour was particularly strong in information technology and computing services in Scotland.
The availability of candidates to fill permanent roles in Scotland has been deteriorating since March 2012, according to Royal Bank’s Report on Jobs survey.
The survey also signals a further drop in the availability of candidates for temporary jobs in Scotland last month. Temporary candidate availability has now been falling for nearly two years.
Permanent staff placements in Scotland increased in December at one of the strongest rates since comparable records began more than two decades ago, the survey shows. In the UK as a whole, permanent staff appointments grew last month at the weakest pace since April 2017.
Recruitment consultancies registered further growth last month in starting salaries awarded to permanent starters in Scotland, with the rate of pay inflation “sharp overall, despite moderating slightly since November”. The survey shows “marked” increases in wages paid to temporary staff.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here