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Professional recruitment firms now have 41% more vacancies on their books than this time last year, according to new survey data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).
APSCo says growth in the professional staffing market continues to climb across all of the trade association’s core sector groups. Permanent vacancies across engineering, finance & accounting, IT and media & marketing are up year-on-year (48%, 19%, 25% and 20% respectively).
Despite this positivity, however, businesses are struggling to attract permanent marketing professionals. The trade association’s data reveals that, despite vacancies rising by 20%, placements have fallen by 6% suggesting a marked shortage of available talent. APSCo’s statistics also show that temporary marketing positions are rising (15% year-on-year) suggesting that businesses are relying on short term cover to maintain service levels.
APSCo’s data reveals that, despite struggling to attract permanent marketing talent, salaries have decreased (-3%) suggesting that employers are not offering attractive enough packages to entice candidates.
Elsewhere, APSCo’s data reveals that median salaries across the engineering and IT arenas continue to climb steadily (10% and 3% respectively) year-on-year.
Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, says: “While our data once again points to increased confidence amongst employers, it is crystal clear that some organisations are simply failing to offer attractive enough remuneration packages to secure highly skilled marketing talent. With an already present skills shortage in the digital arena which is set to exacerbate in the coming years, businesses risk stalling their own growth if they don’t reassess their attraction packages urgently”.
John Nurthen, Executive Director, Global Research for Staffing Industry Analysts, which compiles the report for APSCo, says: “A 41% increase in vacancies is truly an impressive figure and staffing firms will be feeling bullish as we enter the busy final quarter of the year. There is reason to exercise some caution in planning the year ahead, however. UK economic growth is expected to be rather softer in 2015 and the country is not immune from any deterioration in global economic trends.”