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Accountancy Recruitment February 2010
Accountancy News |
09/02/2010
While all the evidence leaned towards an increase in accountancy recruitment during January, the analysts had not bargained on the intervention of Mother Nature.
Snow and ice caused businesses to grind to a halt at the turn of the year, as employees sat in traffic jams, lorries clogged up the motorway lay-bys and consumers huddled around their living-room fireplaces.
Luckily for the consumer outlook, it was the growth figures from the October to December quarter that determined whether or not the recession had ended, rather than those from a comparatively wretched January.
As it happened, the Office for National Statistics was able to ? somewhat sheepishly - report provisional 0.1 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) during Q4 2009.
However, figures from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) suggest that the Big Freeze has contributed to a further mini-slump over the last month, highlighting a downturn in services including the finance sector.
The organisation's index ? where a score of 50 indicates growth ? fell from 56.8 in December to 54.5 in January, the lowest score registered since August 2009.
Attempting to put the findings into context, CIPS chief executive David Noble commented: "This may be a temporary blip caused by one-off events rather than signs of a double-dip recession.
"The chaos caused by the snow hit this sector particularly hard, much more than manufacturing or construction, reducing the growth rates of activity and new business wins."
He claimed there were indicators of "a positive turnaround on a number of fronts", with signs of stabilisation in employment levels, and an increase in the number of firms willing to increase output prices following the return of VAT to 17.5 per cent.
According to the Ashdown Group Jobs Index, the number of accountancy jobs advertised in January remained fairly static, with just a 1.24 per cent drop in hiring activity witnessed since the turn of the year.
The concern for accountancy jobseekers is that the number of advertised vacancies has been slowly falling since July 2009, although the end of the recession may well encourage employers to increase their headcounts once again.
A number of major industry players, including the Big Four, have already confirmed their commitment to accountancy recruitment in recent weeks, while GDP growth should also encourage the creation of new in-house roles.
Clearly, given the high level of meteorological interference in January?s economic data, growth figures for February and March should give a clearer indication of business sentiment and how the accountancy recruitment market is recovering.
Assuming the snow and ice stays away, of course.
Posted by Jon Aspinell
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