February permanent staff placements grew at the fastest rate for two-and-half years with particularly strong demand in the IT sector, according to a report.
Although the job market appears to be recovering, this positive trend could be prematurely cut short once the impact of public-sector cuts begin to bite over the next year, warned the KPMG and Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) report.
“The news that the IT jobs market is recovering is good news, not only for IT professionals but also for the recovering IT industry. However, as mentioned in the KPMG report, the worst is not yet over: the effects of public-sector cuts are still to be felt, and could reverberate across the IT industry, while there will doubtless be repercussions from this year’s general election,” said Mike Devlin, director at IT services and technology company Morse.
Contract staff placements also rose in February, but at a slower rate than reported for the last three months, Overall demand for permanent and temporary staff was accelerating.
