Growth in employment placement slows to a crawl in North of England

Recruitment consultancies in the North of England registered an increase in the number of people they placed in permanent jobs during March. However, growth slowed to a marginal pace, that was below the UK average and also the weakest in the region since the current eight-month sequence of expansion began, the report said.

Iain Moffatt, KPMG’s Leeds office senior partner, said: “The North’s broad-based economy sees the regional job market hold its own in the context of stuttering macroeconomic data; no more, no less. The last month’s slight improvement in appointments growth is good news and far superior to the fall experienced in London but we’d rather be seeing the bigger rises from which the Midlands and the South are benefiting.

“While it’s difficult to read too much into this our report suggests the North could be suffering the effects of skills mismatches given recruitment consultants in this region have noted skills shortages in the manufacturing and IT sectors. It is to be hoped that this does not prove to hold back economic growth in the longer term.”