If you’re a spouse or partner relocating within, or to, the UK, and you plan to look for a job, you’ll be interested in a new Manpower report that shows a widening gap in hiring intentions between the strongest and weakest industry sectors and regions.

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey reports a national seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook of +1%, showing that, eight months on from the UK’s official emergence from recession, employers remain only mildly optimistic about future hiring prospects.

Says Mark Cahill, managing director of Manpower UK, “The UK business landscape is changing, and its future stability is under threat, which carries serious consequences for the labour market. “The gap in hiring intentions between the strongest and weakest industry sectors and regions is widening, and although unsurprising, it is a concern for the UK’s post-recession growth strategy. If the country is to avoid the predicted 8.1% peak in unemployment, there must be significant business growth underpinned by workforces with the skills employers need to drive and support that growth. We know already that there will be challenges; public-sector hiring intentions are expected to plummet, and there is increasing pressure on the private sector to lead the country back to pre-recession growth, which points to a depressed Q1 2011.”

Workforce structures, says Manpower, have changed considerably over the past 18 months, having been affected first by the recession and then – more recently – by the prevailing ‘jobless recovery’. Consequently, employers are now focused on reintroducing pre-recession working patterns and making considered and intelligent hiring decisions that enable knowledge-based workforces to emerge. Equipping a business with the knowledge and skills required to meet its goals, but without incurring unnecessary overhead costs from superfluous headcount, is fast becoming a preferred workforce solution.

The public sector continues to attract considerable speculation, and, with further austerity measures and the government’s spending review looming, a longer-term vision for the sector remains unclear.

“The government has made tough decisions and begun to reshape the public service, but, for now, the onus is still on public-sector employers to build solid workforce solutions that safeguard frontline services,” says Mark Cahill. “Employers must make smart business decisions and build flexible workforces by utilising transferable skills and new business practices, in order to deliver output-focused solutions.

“Finding jobseekers with the right skills at the right time can sometimes be difficult, and in the UK there are concerns of a talent shortage. Even now, employers are actively looking for motivated and skilled candidates to join their workforces and help drive future growth. At the same time, employers must recalibrate their mindsets to consider candidates who may not have all the specific skills a job requires. They must refine job descriptions and candidate evaluations to identify people with a ‘teachable fit’ based on adjacent skills, rather than a traditional fit, with a practical eye towards filling the gaps in their capabilities. Employers must also commit to re-skilling and upskilling employees, new hires and potential candidates. For jobseekers, being open-minded and considering part-time, temporary and full-time positions, with continued training and upskilling, remains attractive to future employers.”

Growth sectors

Based on responses from more than 2,100 employers across nine sectors and 12 regions of the UK, the survey reports anticipated hiring intentions for the next three months.

For the first time since Q4 2008, the findings show that two sectors have returned to double-figure hiring intentions: Utilities, a consistently strong-performing sector, alongside Finance & Business Services, which dominated the UK’s decline into recession, are the most positive sectors, with both reporting favourable hiring intentions of +10%.

In contrast, Construction is the weakest, at -5%; similar to the Retail, Hotels & Restaurants sector, it has now reported negative hiring prospects for nine consecutive quarters. Hiring intentions within Manufacturing, a sector that many have speculated will be pivotal in post-recession Britain, have risen for the sixth consecutive quarter; they reach +4%, and have been fuelled by the UK’s buoyant exports market, supported by global trade, a weak pound and restocking.

Outlook by region

Looking at the regional employment landscape, employers in East Anglia report the most positive hiring prospects, at +13%; here, employment prospects have been boosted by increased manufacturing activity, strong performances by hi-tech businesses, and growth in start-up businesses – especially new ventures in professional services and hotels and restaurants.

West Midlands employers report the least positive hiring intentions for the upcoming quarter, at -9%, having first been hit by extensive job cuts within automotive manufacturing and – more recently – by the impact of public-sector spending cuts locally. The South West shows the greatest quarter-over-quarter improvement, up 10 percentage points to +11%, while, in London, employer hiring confidence has fallen for the third consecutive quarter, to -3%.

Visit manpower.co.uk/meos to view a breakdown of the results for 12 geographical regions and nine industry sectors and download the full Manpower Employment Outlook Survey for Q4 2010.

If you’re an accompanying partner planning to work when you relocate, you may be interested in some new research by the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University, which bears out the commonly held belief that it’s who you know, not what you know, that is most important when you’re looking for a job.

The research, which examined the power of social networks, concludes that the more employed friends you have, the higher their job status, and the stronger your ties with them, the more likely you are to get a job yourself. It indicates that younger people (those under 50) in employment have a significantly higher number of contacts, and more regular interaction within their social networks, than those aged 50+. This offers a wider diversity, strength and quality of contacts.

 

These days, many employers will ask job candidates to undergo psychometric testing in order to assess their suitability, so it may be worth preparing yourself for this type of test if you’re an accompanying partner intending to seek employment when you relocate.

How to Master Psychometric Tests provides expert advice on test preparation, with practice questions from leading test providers. It covers ability tests and personality questionnaires, giving you a detailed insight into the world of psychometrics. It will help you to understand the main types of test, increase your test-making confidence, and help you to develop strategies and explore your work style and personality.

With guidance on testing on the internet and practice graduate and university admissions tests, as well as a leadership-style questionnaire, this is an essential read for those who want to stand out from the crowd.

Written by Mark Parkinson, How to Master Psychometric Tests is published by Kogan Page at £9.99.

There are 101 things to do when you’re preparing to relocate, and not enough time in which to do them. Are you putting yourself under additional pressure by trying to be the perfect mother and homemaker?

A survey from market research company MumPoll has found that 39% of mothers admit to bragging about their offspring’s achievements. Those with younger children boast of their potty-training prowess or early walking or talking skills, while those with older ones emphasise their attainments at school. A fifth admit to boasting about their wonderful husbands.

Even though 78% of those surveyed consider their own competitive behaviour ‘ridiculous’, they are unable to control it.

Said a spokesman for Mum Poll, “By nature, women are generally more competitive than men, and judge themselves against other women. So it stands to reason that when women become mums, they raise their game and strive to be the absolute best at everything to do with motherhood

“Mums put an awful lot of pressure on themselves to be the best at everything. But it is impossible to have a perfect house, an attentive husband and make the greatest sponge cakes the town has ever seen all the time.

''I'm sure that, to most mums, it would be a massive relief to go round another's house and find it is just as messy as theirs, to find the children haven't done their GCSEs at age seven, and to find the husband is working late for the fourth night in a row.''

A thought worth bearing in mind, perhaps, for relocating mums who are caught in the competition trap.

A new book by a trailing spouse provides a wealth of practical tips and coping strategies for partners accompanying their other halves overseas, or waiting behind for their return. Alone at Home by Marian Weston cost £7.99 and is available by www.swifttransitions.co.uk. For a closer look at the changing face of the trailing spouse, see our feature in the summer 2007 issue of Re:locate magazine.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that just one woman in ten is now staying at home full-time. The highest number of women every recorded – about 13.4 million – have jobs, and 55% of them work full time. These new figures have been widely linked to rising property costs and the need for two incomes to meet mortgages, council taxes and utility bills. The message for the relocation industry is surely loud and clear: if the majority of women are now used to working, they’ll need all the support companies can give them in working out how to find employment in their new location, or how to use their time profitably in other ways.

To read more about the report, see www.statistics.gov.uk.

For a look at ways of supporting working partners involved in the relocation process, see the spring 07 issue of Re:locate magazine.