National Careers Week focuses on bringing young people into the world of work. It aims to provide children, teens, and young adults in education visibility of a large range of roles across all sectors. The Facilities Management sector has invested time and resource into showcasing the sector for this age group and is working to increase the talent pool of young people to help encourage the next generation of professionals into FM.
Demand for skilled FM professionals is only increasing in the first quarter of 2023. Many companies have unfilled vacancies and finding the best talent to fill crucial roles is a constant challenge. There has also long been a skills crisis in the sector, which, as has been much discussed, has been compounded by experienced professionals leaving the sector over the last 7 years due to Brexit, the pandemic and retirement.
How Businesses can Reduce Barriers to Re-Entry to the Workforce for Over 50s or How to Reverse The Great Retirement
In the last 2 years, around 700,000 workers aged 50+ have left the jobs market. This is of particular significance to the FM sector as it has an aging workforce which has suffered from a loss of labour over the past 2 years due to Brexit, the pandemic, early retirement, and other factors. This means we have lost some of the expertise needed to productively bring the next generation of FM professionals into the sector. More experienced professionals are a boon to any sector as they can take on a mentoring role for young people who will do their work in the future.
2022 was a year of records for the recruitment industry, with vacancies hitting record highs in the summer and unemployment hitting record lows. The amount of people economically inactive rose too, as people left the workforce due to long term sickness and early retirement. The overall map of employment in the UK showed people moving much more between roles with employment figures maintaining high levels throughout the year, and we expect this to continue through 2023, despite some economic uncertainty.
We are delighted to announce our partnership with the new Yorkshire-based, FM dedicated job board – FM Recruiter. The new site was launched in November, and is the latest edition to the Business Daily Group which include media and recruitment arms covering the Facilities Management and Rail sectors.
300 North, the Facilities Management Recruitment Experts, are delighted to have been awarded a place on the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) RM6229 Permanent Recruitment 2 Framework – Lot 2: Non Clinical General Recruitment.
2022 is shaping up to be another interesting year in recruitment for the FM sector. After the uncertainty of the last two years, many are hoping that 2022 will hold more stability for the market and that markets will move back into the growth phase after a period of re-stabilisation. At 300 North we have seen a general upturn in applications and expressions of interest in roles, as well as market data showing an increase in registrations to job boards in the last few months. This increase from people wishing to change roles will need to continue for some time before the candidate deficit is resolved and there are as many people looking for jobs as there are vacant positions, but it shows a move towards more normal levels.
It is clear for all to see that the recruitment market has been turned upside down over the past 2 years and candidate experience has changed significantly. The pandemic has caused people’s priorities to change sometimes drastically with individuals wanting to move roles but unsure of the current market. The recruitment market within FM has also gone through several changes. From locking down almost completely and only taking on critical staff in early 2020, to a more “buyer” led market where clients had their pick of candidates quickly looking for work, to now, where for the last several months job vacancies have been soaring and finding the right candidates has become much more challenging.
