Chris Cutmore

Newspapers are being forced to omit negative stories about the employment market in the recession due to job advertisers pulling adverts for vacancies.

One newspaper’s news editor admitted to me that all stories involving the job market and decline in vacancies had to be run past the paper’s editor. The reason given was that stories emphasising the paucity of available jobs were encouraging people to remain in their present employment and employers to stop spending on job adverts.

The lack of competition for space on newspapers’ job pages could lead to a decline in value of advertising space, leading to further cuts in revenue for newspapers.

The industry has already been hit by a decline in advertising, with the problem accelerated by companies losing money in the economic downturn that has seen Britain enter recession.

A director of a recruitment consultancy told me that the job market is “very tough” at the moment, as “clients either are not recruiting at all, or if they are the process is taking a long period of time, mainly due to clients being reluctant to make a wrong decision, looking for more comparisons than before and also thinking they can get more talent for less money – which they can.”

“We are also finding that good candidates are reluctant to leave their jobs. The old adage of ‘last in first out’ is frightening off many. There are still vacancies out there, however they are harder to come by. As always though, if you have a great candidate, chances are you will find them a job.”