Don’t forget the labour market was the message from recruitment industry representatives in response to UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement Tuesday of an early general election on 8 June. May called the election citing the need to strengthen her political hand as she enters Brexit negotiations with European Union.

“Considering we were promised that there would be no General Election until 2020, Theresa May’s announcement is nothing short of surprising,” Samantha Hurley, operations director at the Association of Professional Staffing Companies said in a statement. “However a snap election offers the opportunity to get skills, jobs, and recruitment up the agenda, not only from an internal perspective, but also with regards to the Brexit negotiations. To date, initial discussions on a possible interim trade deal have focused heavily on goods rather than services. We hope that the government’s election campaign will act as a catalyst to firm up strategies around skills and employment post-Brexit and push UK skills and the importance of the UK professional labour market into the spotlight.”

Hurley continued, “the prime minister has called this election to put an end to, ‘uncertainty and instability’ — we’ll have to wait and see whether the election delivers this, and that this extends to legislation around trade and employment that will positively impact the professional recruitment sector directly.”

Kate Shoesmith, head of policy at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, says the labour market has so far held up well despite the turbulent year, politicians shouldn’t forget its value amid the campaign.

“It’s been a turbulent year for politics and by extension the markets. So far the labour market has held up well — we have record high employment and record low unemployment,” Shoesmith said. “I hope that all the parties go into this short, intense campaign with the value of a strong labour market to the UK economy at the forefront of their minds. Our industry is worth £35.1 billion to the economy and recruiters transform people’s lives every day. That contribution needs to be recognised and supported by whoever forms the next government.”