It's All Doom & Gloom

It’s All Doom And Gloom

Recession? Recession? We’re apparently in the second part of a double dip recession and the doom mongers are shouting again!

This is not just a recession, but the worst ever apparently. You could say not just a recession but an M&S recession. With M&S’s projected profits down by 1%, Clinton Cards toppling over and Greece all over the floor. Greece is no longer the word! 

Public sector staff have been on strike annoyed with having a pay freeze whilst the private sector quietly suffers pay reductions. Cuts, cuts and more cuts in everything, and banks are not lending, with mortgages almost impossible to get.

Let’s look at the recession in another way. A recession is a natural occurrence of free trade. Things that go up, must come down. So, there are no cuts, there are savings being made due to overspending. Mortgages are difficult to get as banks are stopping people spending what they can’t afford. 

A recession is a way of clearing dead wood and spring cleaning the financial dirt away. So from another view, M&S may have set their targets too high in the first instance. 

Do we really expect Clinton Cards to never close shops when the online ‘design-a-card’ industry is flourishing? Will no one ever go to Greece again on holiday and spend money there? In reality, public spending is up compared to 3 years ago, salaries are rising now by 1% and there are more vacancies than unemployed in the UK.

Wow! That last statement seems strange. However, as a recruitment company specialising in engineering jobs, we have more vacancies than we can shake a stick at. Good hourly rates, great salaries, great benefits and the jobs are real career progressors. 

The problem is all the vacancies are for qualified and skilled specialisms. And that is where the gap is. There are not enough qualified engineers and technicians out there to fill the gaps. Many councils are filling the gaps as they have to get projects completed. 

However they are often filling them with under qualified personnel. They have no choice. Private organisations cannot do this as they need to achieve profits so they cannot spend large sums on training, so they suffer with the shortage.

The answer is that if councils and private companies offered better rates and salaries then the vacancies would be filled. Right?

But we are in a recession, a time for clearing out the chaff. Put up salaries to fill that gap and prices go up, leading to excessive spending. In the short term this would benefit the economy, but maybe a spring clean would be round the corner sooner rather than later.

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