Precision Blog - Recruitment and Employment News

UK industrial output rose unexpectedly in April for the first time since February 2008, official figures have shown.

UK industrial output rose unexpectedly in April for the first time since February 2008, official figures have shown.The Office for National Statistics said output rose by 0.3% from the previous month, compared with forecasts by analysts of just a 0.1% rise.

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Jobs can be shaped to maximise the time spent on doing things that employees find most enjoyable.
Jessica Pryce-Jones was taking her lunch-time run around St James’s Park in London when she realised just how unhappy she was in her job. “I wondered if I could get gently hit by a bus because then I wouldn’t have to go back to work,” she said.
Fortunately there were no buses in the vicinity but the thought itself was enough to spur her into action: she quit her job, studied psychology and went on to found iOpener, a consultancy that specialises in improving performance by making people happier. “There’s a really strong link between happiness and productivity,” she said. “People who are happy at work do, in effect, one day more a week than their unhappiest colleagues.”

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Job vacancies are still falling but there is some evidence that temporary posts are starting to pick up, according to a new study.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (Rec) said the jobs market deteriorated at a slower pace last month following recent record falls in demand. The number of people looking for jobs increased in the wake of the spate of redundancies which continues to hit British industry, the research found.
The research, among 400 recruitment consultancies, also revealed that starting salaries for permanent jobs and temps fell “sharply” as the number of candidates continued to outstrip jobs.

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Recession-battered manufacturers could be “close to turning the corner” after a key survey showed activity at its highest level for a year in May.
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply’s (Cips) activity index posted a reading of 45.4 in May, still below the neutral mark of 50 but an improvement on the revised 43.1 seen in April. It prompted Cips to predict that industry output would stem its decline and stabilise by the autumn.
A score over 50 on the index would signal a return to growth. Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight, said:

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