British firms defy bad weather to hire new staff at record pace
A LEADING business survey revealed yesterday that UK private sector job creation in February reached its fastest rate since the research began in the late 1990s.
Markit’s composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) has a sub-index for employment which rose to 56 in February, up from 55.7.
All numbers above 50 point to growth. “The brightening outlook has prompted firms to take on staff at a rate not seen before over the PMI surveys’ 16-year history,” it said.
Persistently poor weather last month slowed down the pace of growth in the UK economy, Markit said – yet expansion was resilient enough to stay at a healthy level.
The data suggests that “the UK economy remains on course to notch up another quarter of robust growth in what is the best spell of economic expansion since 2007.”
The UK’s composite PMI score was 58.6 in February, slightly down from 59.1 in the opening month of 2014.
Figures for the services industry, the country largest sector, showed a PMI of 58.2 for February, little changed from 58.3 in January.