Member Article

German recruitment sector gets back to work

Recruiters in Germany are preparing for an uptick in hiring as talks of a quick economic recovery drives confidence in trading prospects for 81% of recruitment companies. That’s according to research from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies Deutschland (APSCo Deutschland).

In its latest poll of members, the trade body also found that less than 5% reported low confidence in future prospects with no respondents experiencing very low confidence, indicating a possible uptick in the German recruitment market at a time when the country’s Economy Minister is predicting the economy will recover from October onwards.

Recruiters getting back to work

APSCo Deutschland’s survey further indicated that more recruitment firms are gearing up to bring staff back, with 85% of businesses revealing they were able to open doors to some of their staff in June, up 18.3% from May. This is further supported by the drop in staffing companies using government support schemes, with two thirds of respondents reporting that less than 20% of their staff were still on Kurzarbeit in June.

Contract trends

The poll also revealed that the contractor market in Germany is stabilising as economic projections improve, with the lowest level of terminations reported as a percentage in June since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Future projections also appear more stable with no firms expecting more than 40% of contractors to be terminated by the end of the month.

Tremayne Elson, MD at APSCo Germany, said:

“The talent industry is generally a very good early barometer going into and recovering from a downturn, so to see a general upward trend in both business confidence and the number of firms getting staff back to work, coupled with the drop in contract termination numbers, is encouraging. We will certainly continue to keep a close eye on these metrics to see if it’s sustained, or just a reaction to the good feelings that have emerged since strict lockdown measures were lifted, but overall, we’re pleased to see more of our members facing a more positive environment.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by APSCo .