APSCo figures show increase in financial services jobs

The latest figures from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) have shown an increase in permanent placements, with financial services showing a higher than average increase in permanent hiring.

The figures, which focus on professional recruitment in the UK, showed that permanent placements increased for the 13th month running, with a rise of 9% - a sustained growth that doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon.

Strongest

Financial services was the strongest-performing sector in terms of permanent hiring, with the sector seeing a year-on-year increase of 11%, whilst the number of flexible assignments in the sector increased by 18% over the same period.

Whilst the number of permanent vacancies and contract vacancies dropped by 0.2% and 10% respectively, APSCo’s data showed that there was no slow-down in professional jobs.

The data comes after figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that unemployment dropped to a record low from December 2017 to February 2018, with businesses continuing to hire and shore up their talent despite concerns over the impact that Brexit will have on flexible working and productivity in the UK.

Unscathed

Commenting on the figures, Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Director of Global Research John Nurthen stated that finance is the only sector that has seen an increase across permanent and flexible placements, giving some hope to the government’s claim last week that the UK’s financial services sector will emerge largely unscathed from Brexit and will suffer far fewer job losses than originally feared.