Almost half of UK businesses are now working with no spare workforce capacity. The latest statistics from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) show the proportion of UK employers with no spare workforce capacity has increased sharply to 45 percent in March compared to 39 percent in the previous month. An additional 51 percent of UK businesses are now reporting ‘a little’ capacity.

This means almost half of UK businesses are now unable to take on more work without creating additional jobs, with many using temporary workers as a quick short-term fix. In fact, ninety-six percent of employers plan to hold or increase current levels of agency workers in the next three months and 99 percent plan the same in the medium term.Permanent staffing levels are also set to rise, with 74 percent of employers saying they plan to increase permanent headcount over the next quarter, and 81 percent plan to do so in the medium term.

“These latest stats from the REC shows business in the UK is definitely picking up, almost half of UK companies are now working at full capacity which inevitably means staffing numbers will increase, whether temporary or permanent,” explains Graeme McKinnon, managing director of Select Appointments. This, of course, is very good news for the jobs market as an increased number of positions will be made available over the coming months and skilled workers in particular will be in high demand.”