EMPLOYERS in Scotland plan to cut jobs in the coming quarter, with their overall hiring intentions tumbling to the weakest since 2012 amid uncertainty created by the Brexit vote, a survey shows.
The report from recruitment company ManpowerGroup signals hiring intentions are significantly weaker in Scotland, where a majority of the electorate voted to remain in the European Union, than in the UK as a whole.
As well as Brexit-related uncertainty, as employers await the UK Government’s triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to start the two-year exit negotiation period, ManpowerGroup also cited the oil and gas sector’s woes as a factor in the weaker hiring intentions in Scotland.
Subtracting the percentage of Scottish employers planning to increase staffing levels in the coming quarter from that expecting to cut jobs, a balance of three per cent forecast a reduction in their workforces. This contrasts with an eight per cent balance planning to hire in the previous quarterly survey.
The survey covers the private and public sectors.
Under the heading of “jobs sentiment sours in Remain-supporting Scotland”, ManpowerGroup highlights the fact that hiring intentions north of the Border are much weaker than those in the UK as a whole.
A net five per cent of UK employers plan to increase employment over the coming quarter. In the previous survey, a balance of seven per cent of UK employers had planned to increase staffing.
ManpowerGroup noted private sector hiring intentions in the UK as a whole were now at their weakest since the opening quarter of 2014.
Jason Greaves, operations director at ManpowerGroup, said: “With Article 50 looming and Scotland’s post-Brexit position still uncertain, lots of employers are battening down the hatches and cutting costs. Aberdeen’s jobs market is particularly slow due to the ongoing oil slump. In Edinburgh, we’re seeing how political uncertainty is also affecting the availability of candidates, with many reluctant to take risks and move to new firms. As a result, employers are struggling to fill their vacancies.”
ManpowerGroup noted London, “the other strong Remain area”, had seen the second-sharpest fall in hiring intentions among employers.
UK managing director Mark Cahill said of the survey findings for the UK as a whole: “The impending trigger of Article 50 is clearly affecting confidence in the jobs market. The private sector plans to hire at its slowest rate since 2014, with only construction, manufacturing, and transport and communications planning to hire at previous levels.”
ManpowerGroup's survey was released, under embargo, before First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced yesterday she would seek the approval of the Scottish Parliament next week to start negotiations with the UK Government on staging another independence referendum. She said she wanted a vote to be held between autumn 2018 and spring 2019.
Mr Greaves cited “some cause for optimism” in the Scottish labour market, with large engineering and manufacturing projects creating job opportunities,"from project managers to administrative professionals"
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