Business News Round Up (0710/2022)
KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs
The latest KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs survey, compiled by S&P Global, pointed to a further slowdown in recruitment activity across the UK at the end of the third quarter. Permanent staff appointments and temp billings expanded at the weakest rates in over a year-and-a-half, as uncertainty over the outlook and limited staff supply hampered growth. At the same time, overall vacancy growth continued to ease, with both permanent and temporary staff demand rising at the softest rates since February 2021. The downturn in candidate availability meanwhile abated only slightly, which combined with the rising cost of living drove further steep increases in starting salaries and temp pay. The report is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies. Relatively strong demand for staff and efforts to boost capacity supported a further increase in hiring activity at the end of the third quarter. However, the weaker economic climate and candidate shortages dampened overall growth. Notably, recruiters signalled the slowest increases in permanent staff appointments and temp billings for 19 months, with the former seeing only a mild expansion overall.
https://home.kpmg/uk/en/home/media/press-releases/2022/10/kpmg-and-rec-uk-report-on-jobs.html
Scottish retail footfall gradually improves
Scottish footfall decreased by 13.4% in September, compared with pre-pandemic levels, but was 1.4 percentage points better than August. The latest Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Sensormatic IQ data also showed that shopping centre footfall declined by 19.7% last month – which was also an improvement on the 20.7% fall in August. In September, footfall in Glasgow decreased by 10.4%, which was 1.2 percentage points better than August. On a year-on-year basis, total Scottish footfall increased by 6.9%, Scottish shopping centres were up by 13.4% and footfall in Glasgow increased by 11.4%. Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the SRC, said: “Scottish footfall continues to remain well below pre-pandemic trading. “As inflation bites into customer budgets its clear high street retailers are a long way down on 2019 – that’s a huge concern as retailers face into the final so-called golden quarter when Christmas shopping bolsters businesses and as they continue to lean into their own spiralling costs crunch. Of deep concern will be whether Scottish Ministers take the same approach as previous years and raise the business rate poundage in line with inflation – if they do that will be a further £60m bombshell for businesses next April.”
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-retail-footfall-gradually-improves-28170709
Boosting food and drink supply chain’s productivity is key to increasing UK economic growth
The UK economy is currently seeing slow productivity growth, which is creating problems for both businesses and government and could threaten national prosperity. IGD’s latest Viewpoint report: Three productivity gaps for UK food and drink reveals a number of productivity ‘gaps’ facing the supply chain. The report also discusses how these challenges might be addressed, what the commercial benefits would be, how to make the supply chain work better and the benefits to consumers. James Walton, Chief Economist at IGD, says: “This is not a new problem; productivity gains in the UK have been slow since the 2008-09 recession. However, other economies in Western Europe, which were also hit hard, have restored productivity growth, moving faster than the UK. This productivity gap suggests the UK faces particular challenges. Compared to other developed food and drink markets in Western Europe, labour productivity in the UK supply chain is unremarkable. Food and drink supply chains in peer countries have seen better labour productivity gains over the last decade, leaving the UK behind. This has created a second productivity ‘gap’ and if nothing is done, the UK supply chain may continue to lose ground.” Productivity growth in the UK food and drink supply chain is lowest in retail and eating out. Resolving this third gap could allow the supply chain to deliver better value to consumers; especially vital in the current cost-of-living crisis.
Scotland must ‘normalise’ entrepreneurship, says Mark Logan
Scotland must ‘normalise’ entrepreneurship in society and throughout the education system to build success for its start-up and scale-up tech firms, said Mark Logan this week. The former Skyscanner executive, who authored a tech ecosystem review for government, said whilst entrepreneurial spirit is “latent in us all”, a more “systems-based approach” is required. Mr Logan, appointed chief entrepreneur by the Scottish Government, said at an online tech investor event that the new tech scalers – in seven hubs across Scotland – will be key to that. He said: “Keep watching Scotland, because great things are happening, and great things will follow.” Turning to higher education, Logan added that while Scotland’s universities are world-class in teaching and research, they need to do better at entrepreneurship to “complete the triangle”. He also expressed his belief that by co-locating industry sectors like life sciences and creative industries with internet-economy technology companies, greater scale-up success will follow.