The Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 100 Scottish recruitment and employment consultancies. Headlines from the April survey are:

Drop in perm placements
Steep drop in permanent placements as vacancy growth lowest in 26 months.
Hiring conditions across Scotland deteriorate with sharp and accelerated contractions recorded for both permanent placements and temp billings as economic uncertainty impacts recruitment plans.

Drop in candidate availability
Candidate availability fell further and in doing so increased pressure on pay.
Increased reluctance among workers to take on new roles due to the prevailing economic climate

Competition for talent
Filling roles also remains difficult, as ongoing skill shortages and a further drop in overall candidate availability continue to limit recruiters’ abilities to match people with vacancies.

Rise in starting salaries
Both starting salary and temp wage inflation accelerating as firms bid higher to attract suitably skilled candidates. Competition for scarce talent exerted further upward pressure on pay. Firms were willing to raise their offers in order to attract and secure candidates with the right skillset, with April data signalling sharp increases in both starting salaries and temp hourly wages.”
The rise in new starter salaries across Scotland outpaced that seen for the UK as a whole.

Tech industry still actively hiring
The tech industry continues to show strength and resilience however this brings higher competition for skills. Of the eight monitored sectors, IT & Computing recorded the sharpest rise in vacancies.

UK Wide

Steepest decline in permanent placements since January 2021

Starting salaries for permanent workers continued to rise at a historically sharp pace in April, with the rate of inflation picking up to a four-month high. Higher rates of starting pay were frequently attributed to efforts to attract and secure suitably skilled staff and bumps to pay to reflect the higher cost of living.

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