Umbrella company contractor pay shows gradual rise

A gradual increase in umbrella company contractor pay has been recorded among temporary staff in Scotland.

The latest Report on Jobs from the Bank of Scotland revealed that temp pay rates rose slightly during December 2011, with the pace recorded slightly stronger than that of November. Meanwhile, only a marginal rise in permanent salaries was recorded.

Unfortunately the availability of contractor jobs did not perform so well and Aberdeen-based recruitment agencies were the only ones to report high contractor and temporary staff billings, while candidate availability continued to rise.

Across the country, however, the number of temporary vacancies rose at the slowest pace since February 2010, suggesting that competition for contractor jobs will be strong.

Donald MacRae, chief economist at the Bank of Scotland, commented: "The labour market is showing the negative effects of the slowdown in the Scottish economy. The barometer, although still just positive and indicating a marginal improvement in December, is at its lowest for over a year."

He added that the Scottish economy is continuing to struggle to return to solid growth due to the global slowdown, but the majority of indicators suggest that its jobs market is still slightly outperforming that of the UK as a whole.