Let’s ponder a very interesting set of circumstances, that is creating a working oxymoron, where unemployment is at record recent levels at the same time unfilled vacancies are rising sharply.
Many commentators suggest this is an overhang from the pandemic, however if you incorporate underemployment trends pre pandemic the statistics suggest the UK labour market has been dysfunctional for some time.
Figures suggest that the work people want and the work businesses need carrying out are not being matched in a mutually beneficial way, either people are unable to find the hours they want or business are unable to find staff for the hours they want.
If we are to recover from the economic cost of the pandemic, we are going to need to view work and specifically recruitment in a new way. Clearly the old one size fits all of recruitment and selection doesn’t work and hasn’t worked for some time.
Obviously, we are biased but matching people on the hours they want to work to the hours businesses need working seems the only way forward (ie Labour xchange). We would love to hear your thoughts so please drop us a note if you agree/disagree.