Report: ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey – Q2 2019

The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey for the second quarter 2019 was conducted by interviewing a representative sample of 2,124 employers in the UK.

All survey participants were asked, “How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of June 2019 as compared to the current quarter?”

The survey results for this quarter report that:

  • Finance & Business Services is negative for only the second time in a decade
  • Transport, Storage and Comms reports most pessimistic quarter since 2010
  • Utilities is a bright spot, driven by specialist hiring.

As the Brexit countdown reaches its final stages, ManpowerGroup’s latest Employment Outlook Survey suggests that the boom in the UK jobs market is coming to an end. The national Outlook for the second quarter of 2019 has fallen to +4%, on a par with the weakest levels of confidence we have seen in recent years. More worryingly, the negative Outlook in the Business and Financial services sector – which employs nearly a fifth of all UK workers – suggests jobs are set to be lost in Britain’s most important sector.