With the country in the midst of one of the worst recessions on record, the number of people out of work has dramatically increased. Sadly there simply aren’t enough jobs to go round and even advertisements for the most menial jobs are attracting significant numbers of applicants.

The temporary jobs market is one of the only sectors of the recruitment industry that is experiencing any sort of growth at the moment. This stands to reason, as it is in the interest of recruiting companies to minimise the risk of taking on new employees by offering short fixed-term contracts. The number and type of Temp Jobs Leeds and other big cities are seeing is significantly higher than previous years.
Many recruiting companies, having seen the clamour for even the most low profile positions on offer, have taken advantage of the situation by only offering minimum wage. This has done little to discourage applicants though.

Historically the temporary jobs market has been used by people looking for a stop gap between permenant positions, or students in need of a bit of extra cash. In fact many of the people currently employed in temporary administration and call centre jobs are graduates and people who have previously held positions of greater responsibility. Although these roles are certainly not making the most of the individual’s skills and experience, they should still count themselves very lucky to have any sort of meaningful employment at all. There are currently over 2.5 million UK residents out of work – the highest unemployment figure since 1995.

One example of the extent of competition for jobs was highlighted in the media recently when a temporary secretarial job in Leeds City Centre received over 35 applicants.
A representative from the recruitment agency, who specialise in Leeds Temp Jobs, said “Naturally we’re seeing higher numbers of applicants for every position we advertise, but this was unbelievable. The recruiting company was city centre based which is always quite appealing, but this is still the first time we’ve had so many applicants for a administration role.”

Of course the country will recover as it has done from previous recessions, and when it does confidence will return and the job market will be buoyant once again. This doesn’t mean that everyone will go back to earning the same salaries they were earning before the recession, however. With such a vast pool of candidates to choose from, recruiters will still be able to offer lower salaries and less comprehensive benefits packages to successful applicants.

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