End of mini boom
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GLOOMY PROSPECTS for the road transport industry are contained in a newly published survey which suggests the post-recession mini-boom is at an end.
Overdrive, the contract driver subsidiary of Manpower, has published a quarterly survey which suggests that only half of the number of operators planning to take on extra staff last spring plan to do so this year.
From interviews with leading road transport employers, it found that 20 per cent plan to take on extra staff over the next three months.
A similar number planned to in the first quarter of this year, but it is well down on the forecasts for the second quarter of 1984 when 41 per cent planned to take on extra staff.
There also are signs of more employers planning to shed labour. The number is down from 12 per cent in the first quarter of this year to eight per cent, but it is up from only five per cent in the second quarter of 1984.
The trend for road transport is little different from that across all of British industry, according to Manpower. A spokesman commented that the latest figures are the first signs of an end to the mini-boom in job prospects which followed the recession.
"The underlying trend has been steadily upward since 1981, but now it has turned slightly. The last time we saw a similar pattern was in early 1979, just before the sharp dip into recession."
Of manufacturing industries, electronics and clothing are the main growth areas forecast this spring. The East Midlands and West of England are expected to see greatest growth, while no growth at all is forecast by employers in the Home Counties.