Report suggests employers will boost their workforces in 2012

The 2012 Michael Page Engineering & Manufacturing Salary and Insight Report, a qualitative update from across the company’s client base, found that businesses have been reviewing their production processes in light of restrained levels of domestic consumer demand.

This in turn has caused strong demand for engineering expertise, which is anticipated to be a continuing trend in 2012, with more than half of respondents expecting their employee numbers to increase this year.

Colin Monk, Engineering & Manufacturing managing director at Michael Page, told The Engineer that challenging conditions over the past two years saw employers hire experienced engineers with a high degree of technical expertise.  

‘The challenge that came from this was that salary expectations increased,’ he said. ‘The view was then taken: what do we do in the long term? If we can’t afford to compensate people on an increasing basis then what do we do underneath? How can we integrate more skills and people beset with skills capable of dealing with another downturn?’