Executive Recruitment in a Challenging Market- Manufacturing and Engineering - Dudley Child Executive Recruitment

According to Hugo Sellert, head of economic research at Monster Worldwide, online advertised vacancies reached a 2.5 year low in January 09, the vast proportion of which is due to contracting job vacancies within the private sector, especially within manufacturing and engineering organisations.

According to the Confederation of British Industry’s quarterly survey, 56% of companies are reporting a fall in the volume of new orders in Q4 of 2008, and just 14% are reporting a rise (lowest since 1991).  Manufacturing production increased marginally to 35.8 index points in Jan 09 from 34.9 in December, however CIPS/ MARKIT Purchasing Managers Index fell to a 17 year low. Director of CIPS Roy Ayliffe says “Purchasing managers in the sector reported an anaemic opening to 2009, with records falls in employment as manufacturing and engineering jobs were cut at an astonishing rate of 30,000 per month.”

Recent announcements include:

Corus, leading steelmakers are in the process of cutting 2500 jobs in the UK, 700 alone in Rotherham.
Caterpillar, leading construction company are cutting up to 20,000 jobs worldwide, and currently employ 10,000 in UK.
Philips, electronics retailer announced plans to cut 6000 jobs from its worldwide force.
Pfizer, a global pharmaceutical company are on line to cut 19,000 jobs across the globe.

Over recent months much has been said about the devastating effect these job losses will have on companies and individuals working the manufacturing and engineering industry at large, but how will this drop in vacancies affect organisations offering support services such as Executive Recruitment? More specifically, how will these changes affect Executive Recruitment organisations that specifically focus on filling manufacturing and engineering job vacancies?

Dudley Child Executive Recruitment Ltd is a Leeds based Search and Selection Company operating within the Manufacturing and Engineering industry.  Joint Managing Director Lee Child commented “The large scale job losses we have seen is a huge blow to the manufacturing and engineering industry that over recent years have constantly been bombarded with major challenges such as cheaper overseas competition, rising fuel costs and increased material costs.  The recruitment industry as a whole has been dramatically affected by the economic downturn with reduced numbers of jobs leading to many well established recruitment brands closing on an almost weekly basis.  Many recruitment businesses that are still in operation have made large scale redundancies and relocated to smaller and less expensive premises in an effort to reduce overheads. The shrinking manufacturing industry has lead to generalist recruiters diverting their attention away from the manufacturing industry and instead focussing more on sectors such as FMCG, Nuclear and Renewables which are widely viewed as stable markets.  This in turn creates a further problem for people who are seeking new appointments within the industrial sector as they have less recruitment companies to speak with about vacancies and less recruitment consultants who are willing to work on their behalf.

At Dudley Child Executive Recruitment Ltd, we are committed to serving the Manufacturing and Engineering markets and are privileged to have a team of expert consultants who possess in depth knowledge and with well formed relationships within the industrial markets.  Our people, the quality of the recruitment process we adopt and the passion we have for manufacturing and engineering will ensure that we will continue to operate successfully in these tough times.  Furthermore, there are niches within the industry that are very buoyant, specific skill sets that are in huge demand even though the market as a whole is contracting, meaning that there is still huge potential for recruitment businesses that are agile enough to react quickly to the changing market conditions.”

To find out more about Dudley Child then please call 0113 246 8882 to speak with one of our dedicated manufacturing and engineering consultants.