Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
    • Moody's - Climate Risk Insurers series
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive
Quick links:
  • Home
  • The Actuary Issues
  • December 2017
12

Service sector hiring stalls as prices rise

Open-access content Tuesday 5th December 2017 — updated 5.50pm, Wednesday 29th April 2020

Recruitment in the UK’s service sector last month failed to significantly improve on October’s seven-month low, with the rate of job creation remaining unchanged.

2

That is according to the latest IHS Markit/CIPS UK Services PMI survey, which shows that business growth also slowed in November as firms continued to report high operating costs.

The data shows that input price inflation is the strongest recorded since the first half of 2011, with efforts to alleviate pressures on margins resulting in the fastest rise in prices charged since February 2008.

"This paints a disappointing portrait of a sector struggling against Brexit-related uncertainty as fewer jobs were created and overall activity dropped back from October's six-month high," CIPS director, Duncan Brock, said.

"Businesses could no longer fight against the tide of higher prices for food, fuel and salaries as input cost inflation remained close to its strongest for six years, and businesses passed these increases on to consumers."

The service sector fell from 55.6 in October to 53.8 in the IHS Markit/CIPS business activity index last month, with any value above 50 signifying an improvement, and anything below that a deterioration

This marks 16 consecutive months above the 50 no-change value, however, service providers' optimism for the year ahead remained much weaker than the long-run survey average.

In addition, a rising volume of unfinished work for the third time in four months is thought to reflect recruitment difficulties and firms' operating capacities becoming stretched.

Despite this, positive improvements in two other PMI surveys for manufacturing and construction lead IHS Markit business economist, Chris Williamson, to forecast "robust" growth of 0.45% in the final quarter.

"A sufficient degree of optimism in pockets of the economy, notably financial services, tourism, manufacturing and house building, is helping the economy as a whole to sustain steady growth," he said.

"But the big news is in relation to prices, which suggest that inflationary pressures have yet to peak."


Sign up to our free newsletter here and receive a weekly roundup of news concerning the actuarial profession

This article appeared in our December 2017 issue of The Actuary.
Click here to view this issue
Filed in
12

You might also like...

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Life Reinsurance – Client Manager/Senior Manager

London (Central)
£ excellent + bonus + benefits
Reference
143661

Life Actuarial Analyst

South East / hybrid with 3 days per week office-based
£ dependent upon experience
Reference
143660

Investment Associate Consultant

Flexible / hybrid
£ dependent upon experience
Reference
143659
See all jobs »
 
 

Today's top reads

 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2023 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ