Figures announced last month by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the trade body for employment agencies in the UK, revealed the turnover of the UK temp recruitment market as Ј21.42 billion in 2003.
According to Tom Atkinson, managing director of CashFriday, a payroll and finance provider to the recruitment industry, the figures don’t make clear enough the Ј2.93 billion of financial support given by temp agencies to British business by funding the 50 days that firms took on average to pay agencies for temp workers.
‘With agencies supplying over 1 million temps per working day throughout 2003 and shouldering the 50 days that companies take to pay them for temps, agencies effectively gave British businesses Ј2.93 billions of credit last year. If businesses had paid those temporary workers directly every Friday their cash flow would have suffered.’
