Engineers 'key to South Yorkshire revival'

In the wake of a survey by the Institution of Engineering and Technology which reported a 22% increase in the number of companies looking to expand their current workforce, John Bohan, Director of Engineering and Manufacturing recruitment at Elevation, said things were looking up after years of South Yorkshire firms cutting back.

John Bohan added: "We are now being approached by a number of companies within the area who are looking to expand, despite previously saying they were unable to take on new recruits.”

"From an employment perspective, now is a very critical time for the economy.

"Over the past five years we've seen few engineering firms looking to take on new recruits, with many instead choosing to strip down their work force to the bare minimum in an effort to ride out the economic crisis, he said.

"The change we are now seeing from within the industry is hopefully an indication of things to come, not only on a national level, but also for local independent firms here in South Yorkshire, which have been hit hardest by the recession in the past few years."

But the IET annual skills survey also revealed that companies are finding it harder to recruit engineers this year than in 2011, and that if the trend continued, the UK economy was more likely to continue shrinking.

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