Manufacturing hire rates higher

A report from Jobcentre Plus shows that almost half of manufacturing businesses were on the look out to hire new faces last year. In 2005, 45 per cent of manufacturing businesses were actively recruiting new staff, which is up 2 per cent on 2004. Manufacturing vacancies accounted for 10 per cent of the total vacancies available across Britain.

In addition to more employers looking to hire, more vacancies are also being successfully filled across the country – 88 per cent in 2005 compared to 86 per cent in 2004. Despite a marginal drop in the overall number of vacancies available across the country, in some regions the volume of available jobs has grown considerably. The total number of vacancies is up 25 per cent in Scotland and 20 per cent in the South West.

Minister for Employment, Jim Murphy, said: ‘The results of this survey reveal the current strength of the UK labour market. The number of companies looking to recruit new staff is on the increase at a time when employment is at record levels. We have set ourselves an ambitious target of reaching an 80 per cent employment rate and recognise that we need to do more to help match those who are now looking for work with the over 600,000 vacancies in the UK economy.