Temporary jobs increase in town

Firms will start recruiting full time once confidence returns

There are signs that the job market is improving in Swindon, after several months of increasing unemployment.

Recruitment agencies say companies are hiring staff once again, but largely on a temporary basis.

Stella Weeks, who runs an agency in the town, said firms were nervous about recruiting permanently so they were going to agencies and taking on temps.

Since Christmas, the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance has risen from 3,427 to 6,535.

One such employer is Howard Tenens, a large firm who run warehousing for the Honda factory.

DAVE HARVEY'S BLOG Dave Harvey is the BBC business correspondent in the West. So yes, jobs are creeping back to Swindon. If this is a green shoot, it is a tiny delicate slip of a thing. Jobs back to Swindon but only for temps

When Honda shut down for four months in February, the company laid off half its staff, about 30 people. Now they are hiring again.

"We've taken on 11 permanent and 11 temporary staff," Ben Morris, the company's sales and marketing director, said.

"It's still early days, we're still very much bubbling along the bottom of the recession. We need to take things very carefully."

Rich Vaughan was one of those laid off in February.

"I'm glad to be back, 'cause being unemployed is not nice at all," said Mr Vaughan, "I'm glad Howard Tenens has taken people back in again."

Recruitment experts believe firms will continue to hire temporary staff until confidence grows stronger.

Stella Weeks said: "Making people redundant is horrible, and people really don't want to do that again, so they're doing everything to avoid it.

"We're all still worried about what lies ahead, but at least there are more jobs around now."