REC comments on latest jobs figures

New figures that show a further decrease in unemployment have been welcomed by an organisation that represents agencies that find work for people working in interim management.

Kevin Green, Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said the figures are good news and reinforce what recruiters have been saying for the last few months - that the UK jobs market has stabilised.

However, he warned that at the same time the public sector jobs market is rapidly slowing and the REC was concerned that this will contribute to a jobless recovery.

Green went on to say that the REC's public sector resourcing campaign underlines the need for more deep-rooted reform to the way services are delivered rather than the kind of knee jerk short term cuts to temporary and permanent staffing which would impact on frontline services.

This reform could include greater use of interims to drive change and provide a more flexible workforce.

The Office of National Statistics figures published in March have shown another decrease of 33,000 in the overall number to 2.45 million between November and January.

People claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by 32,330 to 1.59 in February but at the same time, the number of long-term unemployed rose by 61,000 to 687,000.

The REC's March JobsOutlook report showed that employers were showing some uncertainty over their short-term recruitment due to the current political and economic climate.

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