The latest research conducted by market analyst Plimsoll states that 10,000 job losses are imminent in the UK security industry, while a quarter of the sector is already showing signs of recession. Only 13% of the manned security sector, though, is exhibiting any kind of economic slowdown.
For the last three years, it seems, the cost of managers employing staff has been increasing at a greater rate than the industry has been able to afford – with the cost of salaries rising by 28% and sales by a disproportionate 24%. An estimated 76% of all the top 1,000 companies surveyed in the ‘Security’ report are spending more on salaries than they were in 1998.
Importantly, the cost of salaries as a function of sales has increased by 5%, and already a quarter of those companies questioned are now running at a loss. Next year, Plimsoll forecasts that salaries will increase by an average of 3.8% (from GB pound 21,006 to GB pound 21,795).
Accordingly, nearly 70% of all companies will need to shed jobs in the next financial year.
The news is not so gloomy in the manned security sector, though. Over 40% of security providers are showing no signs of recession at all, posting an average sales growth of 15.5% combined with a profit margin of 5%.
Current market growth in the manned sector is a healthy 13%. Although profitability is low (at 2%), sales per number of employees average out at GB pound 16,000 per staff member.
Many of the 75 guarding contractors surveyed in Plimsoll’s ‘Manned security’ report plan on going for growth no matter what happens in terms of the recession. A brave but possibly cavalier approach, suggests Plimsoll.
No less than 27 of those firms questioned by Plimsoll are growing at an average of 22%.
