In my most recent poll here on DGB I was asking the question whether companies in our sector were planning to hire in the next few months. I posed the question on here, on Twitter and on Linkedin to get the widest possible range.

The poll came to mind as I continued to look at the industry and see how busy we continue to be. There is no question that business levels remain high, and there remains huge pressure on the supply chain at all levels. To my mind, we need to expand the number of people who work in this industry to try and alleviate some of the pressure points.

Hence, I asked the question I did.

The results

This is the question I posed on DGB, on my Twitter and Linkedin accounts: Are you planning to hire more staff in the next few months?

These were the results that came in:

Just under two-thirds of those who voted confirmed they were planning to hire more staff in the next few months. Only 22% said no, with 15% undecided, which means there is a chance that a maximum of 78% of the sector (assuming this is accurately proportionate) is seeking to hire.

This is a success story. In an economy that is being truly battered in most other sectors, fenestration is standing out as a real bright spot. Whilst this is good news, we have to recognise that there are thousands and thousands losing their jobs. This is why I firmly believe that given the wider picture, taking into account the huge pressure on demand we have right now, and looking at the above intentions, we should be shouting loud and far that this is a sector that is seeking to expand.

During the writing of this post, it has been announced that the furlough scheme is to be extended to March of next year and that the UK and EU are at a real risk of a serious double-dip recession. So given these significant developments in a rapidly evolving situation, it will be interesting to see how the above intentions hold up over the coming weeks and months.

To get weekly updates from DGB sent to your inbox, enter your email address in the space below to subscribe:

By subscribing you agree to DGB sending you weekly email updates with all published content on this website, as well as any major updates to the services being run on DGB. Your data is never passed on to third parties or used by external advertising companies. Your data is protected and stored on secure servers run by Fivenines UK Ltd.