Conditions in the Scottish labour market continued to improve in July, but for the first time in the current year the number of permanent placements fell.

This is the finding of the Bank of Scotland’s Labour Market Barometer, compiled from a monthly survey of over 100 recruitment and employment consultants.

The composite barometer reading measuring conditions across the labour market read 50.2, down from 52.3 last month, where anything above 50 indicates improvement.

While the level of temp billing increased, having contracted last month, this was the weakest increase in 2012, while the number of permanent placements shrunk for the first time this year and only the second time in the past 12 months, with the other occasion being December 2011.

Having previously seen the strongest rise in permanent placements in June, Glasgow this month had the biggest decline on the permanent side, while Edinburgh was the only area to see temporary staff billings drop in July.

For the fifth month in a row IT & computing is the sector with the highest demand for permanent staff, but loses the number one spot it had held on the temporary side for the last three months to secretarial & clerical.

The full report is available online here via researchers Markit.