Employers in the insurance sector have predicted an increase in employment prospects for the first quarter of 2002, a new survey from Manpower shows.
The Quarterly Survey of Employment Prospects found that the insurance sector was likely to be one of the better performers for new jobs
Manpower managing director Iain Herbertson said: "With the exception of a few quarters only, "net job gains" in insurance have been positive since we started our survey 33 years ago.
"The sector has seen a sustained increase since the mid-1990s and although there was a drop from Q4 2001, the balance is still positive."
The survey asked over 2,000 UK companies, spanning 12 regions and 19 industries, if they expected an increase, a decrease or no change in their staffing levels in the three months to the end of March 2002. A "net job gains" is calculated by subtracting the percentage of companies expecting to reduce staff numbers by the percentage expecting to take on staff.
"Net job gains" in insurance are 7, which puts the sector ahead of overall UK employment prospects.
Overall, UK employers' predictions for the period January-March 2002 show the steepest quarter-on-quarter drop in the history of the survey. For the first quarter of 2002, the national average "net job gains" is 0 - down from a "net job gains" of 20 in the last quarter and 12 this time last year.
This equals the severe fall in prospects in the first quarter 1999, when "net job gains" also dropped from 20 to 0, before immediately picking up in Q2.
Herbertson continued: "The first quarter of the year is always the slowest for employment prospects, fuelled by the traditional slow-down in consumer spending, and not all types of work are in decline.
"Indeed, in a period of economic uncertainty we are seeing greater use of flexible workforces: in 2001 our business was ahead of optimistic predictions from the survey and for 2002 we are anticipating continued business growth."
The sectors of the economy that showed the most confidence in employment prospects were private healthcare, public healthcare and private building. The leisure sector showed the greatest weakness.
