Recruitment activity will continue to rise over the next six months, according to the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) published by the Cranfield School of Management in association with Personnel Today.
However, the rate of increase continues to slow, with almost a quarter of organisations (24%) expecting recruitment activity for all grades of staff to decrease in the next three months compared with a rate of 17% in summer 2005.
Recruitment activity is expected to increase across both the manufacturing and services industries and also across both the public and private sectors. More than a third of organisations (38%) within the public sector and nearly half (44%) within the private sector expect recruitment activity to increase over the next six months.
The story is very different in the not-for-profit sector, with only a quarter of responding organisations expecting an increase in recruitment activity and almost two-thirds (64%) expecting a decrease.
Overall, recruitment needs over the next six months are expected to be highest in sales with a quarter of respondents (24%) expecting to recruit sales workers. The need to recruit in personnel (21%) and finance/accounting staff (20%) is also high.
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The RCI results for the autumn 2005 survey were based on just under 1,000 responses from HR professionals.
