KN74153

KEY NOTE RECRUITMENT AGENCIES (PERMANENT) : January 2003

CLICK TO BUY

This report covers: permanent recruitment, recruitment consultancies, executive recruitment, secretarial, clerical, computing, IT, financial, technical, engineering, hotel, catering, professional, managerial, nursing, drivers, blue collar, top ten world executive search companies,

Companies covered include: Adecco Holdings (UK), Brook Street (UK), Carlisle Group, Extra Personnel, Human Resource Group, Michael Page International, Pertemps Recruitment Partnership, PSD Group, Human Resource Grouup, Melville Craig Group, Solutions in Staffing & Software, TMP Worldwide, Whitehead Mann,

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report examines the permanent recruitment market in the UK. It covers both general and executive recruitment, including executive search. According to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the market was worth £1.66bn in the year to June/July 2002, and the number of appointments made was 519,761.

Secretarial and clerical appointments account for the largest share of the market by volume, followed by technical/engineering appointments and professional/managerial appointments.

Most of the industry is UK owned. The major firms include: Adecco Holdings (UK) Ltd, Brook Street (UK) Ltd, Carlisle Group PLC, Extra Personnel Ltd, Human Resource Group PLC, Michael Page International PLC, Pertemps Recruitment Partnership Ltd, PSD Group PLC, Solutions in Staffing and Software Ltd, TMP Worldwide Ltd (which includes Melville Craig Ltd) and Whitehead Mann Ltd.

The market has slowed down since mid-2001 and some sectors, such as IT, are experiencing major difficulties. The weaker market has resulted in a large number of redundancies among recruitment companies, with most recruitment firms having reduced their staff numbers since the middle of 2001.

The decline in the overall recruitment market has even affected the online recruitment companies, which appear to have been hit harder than the bricks-and-mortar firms. Meanwhile, the executive search firms are reeling from the harsh market conditions that now confront them. One feature that stands out is that the share prices of search firms and general recruitment companies have dropped rapidly. This makes it more likely that some recruitment firms will be bought out, either by their competitors or by new market entrants. Industry insiders believe that such activity will be a precursor to a substantial market revival, although this might not occur until the end of 2003.

Key Note forecasts that, following the slump in 2002, the value of the market will rise again in 2003, with annual growth accelerating year-on-year until 2007. However, growth in 2003 could be lower than 4 percent if the German economy slides further, and if other external events, such as war in the Middle East, lead to a loss of business confidence. In late 2002, the consensus among economists was that a Middle East war would not impact adversely on western economies, but this relatively optimistic view is based on the assumption that a war would not last more than 4 or 5 months

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Text © 2004 Key Note

Can't find what you need? Try our "Research on Request" market report service and define your own report research! Fixed prices - £150, £450 and £1,250 - and fixed delivery of 4, 5 and 14 days

Click here for full details

---

Ariadne - working together with our customers to enhance productivity and increase knowledge
© 2004 www.the-list.co.uk Ariadne
Last updated by Amanda Porteous February 2004