The employment sector is beginning to see the green shoots of financial recovery

Grocer, May 16, 2009 by Guy Moreton

In case you missed it, 7 May 2009 was a momentous day. Most importantly, it was my son's eleventh birthday--an event marked by the delivery of a shiny new bike. However, overshadowing this, according to the BBC's Robert Peston, was the announcement that this was the day the banking crisis ended. Therefore, we can now all start to think a bit more positively about life and look to the future as the recession is coming to an end--and if Robert Peston says so, it must be true!

Unsurprisingly, my son is not at all concerned by Mr Peston's assertion. He's much more concerned about the outcome of Liverpool's last three games and whether or not Fernando Torres will leave in the summer.

However, as the owner of a recruitment and training business, I am acutely aware of the anxiety my clients face in today's challenging economic climate. For the past 18 months, the employment market for many has been awful. My business specialises in recruitment and training in the fresh food, agriculture and horticulture industries and as the old adage goes, "people always need to eat", so we have tried to maintain a positive outlook and a brood sense of optimism. We have kept a lookout for any small signs of improvement--but boy, has it been slow and boy, has it been a hard grind!

Enquiries have kept up and we've been keeping busy but it's been very difficult to get clients or the candidates to commit to anything. Confidence is a fragile thing and recently everything has had to be absolutely 100% perfect on both sides for either party to say that magic word--yes. I don't think we have been unique in this, as many of my contacts in other sectors have said the some--plenty of activity, just nobody making decisions.

However, over the past couple of weeks we have detected signs that on increasing confidence has started to creep back into our marketplace. Even as o horticultural recruiter, I hesitate to mention anything to do with 'green shoots', but interview numbers are up and jobs ore coming in at a steady rate. I know the sun has been shining and that always helps people feel better, and I know there ore still plenty of commentators around warning of false dawns. Some of Mr Peston's financial peers ore talking about something called a 'bear market rally'. But all I can say is that in our sector the noises coming from our clients give us cause for optimism.

Don't get me wrong--it's still tough going. But some degree of confidence does seem to be returning and that's got to be a good thing. So now that Mr Peston has confirmed to the notion what we've felt recently in our little corner of the global economy, surely the only way is onward and upword.

Guy Moreton is director of recruitment practitioner MorePeople