'Slight' jobs slowdown expected in telecoms sector says Manpower
With an outlook of +4 percent for hiring intentions among telecoms firms, the sector is down one percentage point on the last quarter, said Manpower, as businesses prepare for the year ahead following on from Christmas.
The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is based on responses from 2,100 UK employers. It asks whether employers intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter.
"It is no surprise that we are seeing a slight cooling off in the sector as we come into 2015," said Tobias Mills, Manpower operations director. "In fact, the pattern we are seeing from Q4 2014 to Q1 2015 exactly mirrors that of 2013 into 2014, when the hiring intentions for the sector also dropped one point from +5 percent to +4 percent."
Following a quarter that has seen demand driven largely from the high street, particularly in the mobile sector, this is traditionally a time when companies across the telecoms sector "reflect on the Christmas period and take stock ahead of the coming year", said Mills.
But Mills added: "As we enter 2015, we expect to see increased competition between the quad-play operators, largely driven by new products coming online from the likes of Vodafone and BT.
"This will result in sustained demand for more customer service and sales roles as the operators look to cross sell broadband, mobile, TV and phone products across both their current customer base as well as attracting new customers."
Mills also predicted more in-house big data analysis jobs at telecoms firms as they sought to move away from external firms doing this work.
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