Chancellor Alistair Darling has been urged by the REC to deliver a ‘confidence-building’ budget to support recruiters and other sectors dealing with the recession.

In a letter to the Chancellor ahead of this week’s budget, Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s chief executive Kevin Green offered him areas he should focusing his budget.

The areas included helping job creation through the tax regime and avoiding adding cost and bureaucracy through more employment regulation and procurement policy.

Kevin Green said: “We need to see Government doing all it can to support businesses through the recession and so safeguard the wealth creation part of our economy. We must jumpstart the jobs market and not add to the cost of employing people when many businesses are fighting to remain solvent.”

“With unemployment still rising, the focus needs to be on providing expert support and guidance for newly unemployed job seekers as well as on helping organisations train their staff and improve competitiveness. The Budget must provide a launch pad to boost the economy and labour market so that UK plc is in the best possible shape to take advantage of the upturn when it arrives.”

A report has highlighted that only a third of employers have any awareness of the possible implications of the Agency Work Directive.

The AWD, which will give temps similar benefits to perms after 12 weeks work, will go through Parliament this year and could be implemented as early as April next year.

Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said: “We are worried that such an important piece of regulation is about to happen with so little understanding from employers.

“Some 1.4 million people work as temps, contractors or interim managers every week. The flexible labour market is the best defence the UK has against rising unemployment as it is a highly effective way for people to keep earning while keeping their skills up to date.

“Employers and recruiters must come together to ensure that equal treatment measures are workable and do not create the kind of cost and bureaucracy that would ultimately limit opportunities for job-seekers.”

The REC’s Agency Work Commission presented its practical recommendations to Government last month with the overriding message that the deployment of the regulations should be pushed back to later in 2011 so that employers and agencies have the time and space to implement effectively.