String of recruitment contracts and new staff for Jo Hand

A Teesside recruitment firm is headed for its strongest year yet, after winning a string of new contracts and taking on staff.

Middlesbrough’s Jo Hand Recruitment has secured four major contracts to put hundreds of people into work, in sectors including commercial, facilities management and hospitality.

The Albert Road-based company says it’s backing the region to continue its climb out of the recession - and has itself taken on three new staff, after seeing a surge in employment for the last three months.

Founder and managing director Jo Hand insists the North-east is finally turning a corner, despite a rise in the region’s unemployed the previous quarter; this was in contrast to the rest of the country whose unemployment levels dropped.

Jo said: “The fourth quarter is traditionally the busiest as some of the sectors we work in, such as logistics and hospitality, are at their peak at this time.

“However we are also finding that our other sectors such as engineering, manufacturing and office admin are also experiencing strong growth right now.

“It is all very positive, and we are hopeful that trend will continue in 2015.”

Figures issued by the Office for National Statistics showed that UK unemployment has fallen below two million for the first time since 2008. There are currently 132,000 people out of work in the North-east.

Jo Hand Recruitment is in its 10th year but owner Jo Hand, who was 2013 winner of the Susan Dobson Award for North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, has 27 years experience in the industry.

She said: “This is the third recession I have seen and it seems the country has been a lot slower to get out of it this time.

“There have been lots of difficulties for businesses to face in recent years, lots of places have had to put recruitment freezes into place and that has had a knock-on effect.

“But for us we have seen a real marked surge this quarter and it leads me to believe that we are definitely heading in the right direction.

“In fact, we have had to take on an extra three staff ourselves to help cope with demand.”