Press releaseWednesday 3 December 2008

Engineering contractors focus on job security as long term joblessness rises

• But contractors anticipate more work in the environment sector
• Job security increasingly more important
• 6.2% jobless for 90 days or more

The proportion of engineering contractors without work for 90 days or more jumped by over a third (38%) over the past three months, from 4.5% to 6.2%, reveals research by giant group plc, the contractor services provider.

The results from giant group also show that fear about the availability of jobs has made contractors re-assess their priorities. Engineering contractors now place more importance on job security than they did three months ago, with 21.7% saying it is their top priority when choosing a contract, compared to 15.7% in the last quarter.

Matthew Brown, Managing Director of giant, comments: “As the UK economy slows and industrial output declines, demand for engineering contractors will inevitably taper off. The declining value of the pound, however, will make UK manufactured goods more competitive internationally and should partly offset weakening domestic demand.”

“Job security is becoming a top priority for engineers now, because they recognise there might be longer gaps between contracts as work becomes scarcer.”

He adds: “Engineering projects are often long term investments. Many will get underway in the expectation that they will not be completed until the economy picks up, so there is still likely to be a decent amount of work for engineers. Major infrastructure projects which are publicly financed, such as the 2012 Olympic Games, will plough ahead relatively unscathed by the downturn, and this will also support demand for skills.”

The giant research shows that despite the decrease in availability of work, contractors expect their pay to increase. 66% of contractors expect their wage packet to grow over the next 12 month period. This is just a small decrease from Q2 when 68.5% expected an increase in earnings.

The survey by giant also reveals that 11.3% of engineering contractors expect most employment opportunities to be in the environmental sector in the next 12 months, compared with just 5.8% who thought this in Q2 08. The anticipated surge in demand for environmental engineers is partly explained by a growing need for hydrologists and ecologists.

Explains Matthew Brown: “The growing importance of flood risk and Environmental Impact Assessments is feeding through to higher demand for hydrologists and ecologists. The Government is planning to bolster flood defences and plans to put more funding into flood risk prevention. There is also the expectation that environmental impact assessments will become more widespread and onerous, boosting demand for ecologists.”

Note: Established in 1992, giant group specialises in providing services to recruitment agencies, temporary workers, freelancers and contractors. The range of services include agency back office solutions from giant precision (www.giantprecision.com) – timesheet management, billing, payroll, contract management, pre-employment and background checking, BACS disaster recovery – and giant umbrella payroll services where giant is the professional employer organisation employing and payrolling the temporary workers and contractors.

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