The Labour Market report is highlighting a real positive shift in employment levels, with significant increases year on year. The better news is that although employment is up, there are still plenty of vacancies which should help us to improve employment levels even further. There is also an increase in the number of islanders working on zero hour contracts – 6,050 in total. I’d consider this a positive shift change as it means businesses which weren’t employing in the past are now taking tentative steps towards increasing the size of their workforces.
The report also states that there has been an increase in employment in the financial services and related sectors, and our experience reiterates the facts of the report, that this has been driven primarily by the legal, trust and fund administration sectors. In contract, the banking sub-sector recorded a decrease in employees as we have seen some banks relocate functions to other jurisdictions or improve processes to the extent that they require fewer employees. Despite this, these projects have driven the adoption of zero hours contracts.
We’re also seeing a sustained requirement for compliance professionals partly down to initiatives such as FATCA and other remediation projects. We’re also continuing to see lots of great opportunities for graduates and those seeking trainee positions.
The trends we’re seeing are great news for all islanders, whatever level or industry your career is focused on. We can’t see this positive trend changing, it looks set to continue. Improved employment levels coupled with increasing numbers of vacancies can only be good news for the economy and job seekers alike.