Government and campaigns
Menopause refers to a time when women stop menstruating due to lower hormone levels. Typically impacting women between the ages of 45 and 55. YouGov found 81% of British businesses thought it was important for them to support women experiencing menopause at work. Whilst 13% believed it wasn’t important and 6% did not know. According the ACAS Chief Executive Susan Clews businesses should use ACAS expertise to develop their own training, start conversations around menopause, and provide women with a safe place to work without fear of judgement. These would prevent the person from losing confidence in their skills and abilities, having increased anxiety and depression and facing departure from their roles. Access ACAS tools and guidance here
Our Driving and Logistics Policy Lead, Usman Ali, has been invited by the Department for Transport (DfT) to be part of the Future of Freight Council’s next meeting on 25th October, chaired by Conservative Minister for Roads and Local Transport, Richard Holden MP. DfT recognised the unique perspective the REC bring to these debates, and as such, we are keen to provide the Civil Servants, Richard Holden, and his relevant teams with as much insight as possible to tackle the acute labour and skills shortages still affecting the sector. If you have any information you want to share with Usman, please email anything over to Usman.Ali@rec.uk.com by 23 October 2023.
Last week REC attended the Conservative Party Conference, likely to be their last one ahead of the general election. This provided us with an opportunity to engage with key stakeholders within the party and other businesses to discuss what a future government needs to do. You can read more about our time at the conference in our blog on the event.
The REC’s latest JobsOutlook signalled that firms’ confidence in making investment and hiring decisions for their own business is improving. Employers’ forecast demand for permanent workers in the short term (next three months) and medium term (four to 12 months) remains unchanged. The forecast demand for temporary workers also remains unchanged for short term and the medium-term temporary hiring trend rose eight percentage points.
In line, the latest Labour Market Tracker shows that there were 174,954 new job postings in the week of 11-17 September 2023 – 4% higher than the week before (4-10 September 2023) and 13.5% higher than the year before (12-18 September 2022). Also, the number of active postings in the week of 11-17 September 2023 was 2,967,950– a 5.6% increase compared to the previous week (4-10 September 2023). This suggests good demand in the labour market despite growth headwinds.
Also, have a look at our most recent Report on Jobs.
Neil Carberry, REC Chief Executive, penned an article for HR magazine to encourage HR professionals to embrace AI and for them to turn to recruiters to help with the transition. This is after a REC/Savanta survey of senior HR professionals found that just one in ten of them are using AI in recruitment – and of these 92% of people, just three per cent of them intend to use AI in the next 12 months (as reported in Personnel Today). Our Labour Market Tracker was widely reported on by the media because it provided evidence of a slowing in new vacancies as weekly job postings no longer reach post-pandemic weekly highs of above 200,000. The Times was among the publications which reported Neil Carberry’s view that the market has normalised over the past few months, falling back from the all-time highs that were driven by opening the economy after the pandemic. Elsewhere, Neil told the Financial Times that although employers were taking longer to commit to new hires, confidence was nevertheless improving.
We are now 9 weeks away from the REC inaugural EDI Summit. We are on a mission to increase EDI related best practice in recruitment both within our member firms and their clients. We hope to educate recruiters on how they can embed inclusive recruitment recognising that jobs have the potential to change people’s life trajectories. Sign up to our event here
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