The country’s buoyant banking and financial sector is driving HR professionals away from the manufacturing industries.
Steve French, managing director of HR recruitment agency TMP Worldwide, said the booming service sector was attracting personnel managers away from more traditional industries.
He said, “Without doubt, the service sector is the area where there is the most growth – we are doing more in that sector than in any other.
“HR candidates in the manufacturing sector are actually seeking work in the service sector. They are even prepared to go from permanent jobs in the manufacturing sector to temporary jobs within the service sector.”
He added, “It seems like jobs for life are well and truly gone – people in HR are prepared to take risks, take charge of their careers and go to where the more creative jobs are.”
His comments came after research published last week showed massive growth in recruitment of managerial and professional staff, which includes HR, within the service sector.
The Recruitment Confidence Index surveys 100 companies asking if they would be taking on more staff. The index for managerial and professional staff in the service sector is 128 compared to 110 in manufacturing firms.
Dr Jos van Ommeren, senior research fellow at Cranfield University’s School of Management, which carried out the research with TMP Worldwide and The Daily Telegraph, said growth in HR recruitment as a whole was set to increase.
But he added that HR was not suffering the same recruitment difficulties as some functions such as computing.
He said, “From this you can draw two conclusions. One is that there is an adequate supply of personnel staff. The other is that it is not difficult to go from other jobs into the personnel function.”
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