By Karen Peattie
PERMANENT staff appointments declined in March at the steepest rate since April 2009, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs.
Temp billings also fell at the quickest pace on record as the coronavirus pandemic hit the Scottish jobs market.
The demand for both permanent and temporary staff declined with the fall in permanent vacancies the first since September 2010. Meanwhile, the contraction in temp demand was the quickest since June 2009. At the same time, candidate availability continued to deteriorate.
Recruitment consultancies in Scotland signalled a rapid decline in permanent staff appointments during March with the rate of contraction the most marked since the global financial crisis in April 2009.
Sebastian Burnside, chief economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic weighed heavily on the Scottish labour market in March.
“Permanent staff placements fell at the steepest rate since the global financial crisis over a decade ago, while temp billings declined at the sharpest rate since data collection began over 17 years ago.
“At the same time, demand for both permanent and short-term staff declined, with panellists reporting that firms had stopped hiring amid the coronavirus pandemic. The reduction in permanent vacancies was the first since September 2010, while the fall in temp staff demand was the fastest since mid-2009.
“Overall, latest data highlighted the substantial impact of emergency measures and shutdowns that have taken place due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the vital importance of the Government schemes put in place to safeguard livelihoods during this exceptional time.”
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