The marketing and media sector is suffering from a massive talent shortage according to the latest employment data from The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo). Permanent placements in the sector have fallen by almost a fifth in the last three months but actual job openings grew by 1% pointing to an on-going scarcity of available candidates. While this is partly being plugged by the professional temporary market which has shown increases in job openings and placements of 4% and 8% respectively, it appears that for the marketing and media sector the war for talent is very much alive and well.
There are also early signs of a possible rebound in permanent roles within the IT and Engineering sectors where vacancies since the beginning of the year have increased by 0.1% and 0.5% although it is too early to say whether this will be sustained.
Vacancies for white collar workers in overall decline
The picture overall for the professional jobs market (bankers, accountants, IT professionals etc) continues to be mixed with permanent jobs continuing to be replaced with contractors. Temporary placements have risen by just over 4% year on year compared with a fall in permanent placements of 5.8% signalling that there is still a lack of confidence among employers. Finance & Accounting vacancies are down around 9% year on year for both temporary and permanent roles although the downward trend does seem to have stabilised since the beginning of the year.
London & The South East faring worse than the regions
Additionally, an analysis of online job postings provided by Innovantage – a company which tracks online recruitment activity across 200 job boards and thousands of employer websites shows a year on year drop of 11% in permanent professional job vacancies across London and the South East, worse than any other region.
APSCo’s monthly jobs data report provides a snapshot of the UK’s professional recruitment market across all professional-level sectors including financial services, marketing, engineering, accounting and IT.
Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo comments:
“What’s becoming clear from these monthly trends is that we are entering into a new era of corporate agility where temporary workers will no longer be seen as ‘a typical’ but as the new way of working. Although permanent staff may be paid less than contractors, there are significant additional costs for the employer when they take on full-time employees, although the recent budget announcement on national insurance relief will alleviate a little of this. So while an increase in temporary placements may not appear good news as permanent hires fall, the use of contract workers is continuing to offer a great deal of flexibility to both employers and employees.”
John Nurthen, Executive Director International Development for Staffing Industry Analysts who compile the data on behalf of APSCo comments:
“It’s notable that marketing and media jobs have continued to grow while other professional sectors decline but it is a concern that staffing companies are finding it difficult to match this buoyant demand. There is a skills mismatch which has been exacerbated due to the increasing importance of new delivery channels and the need for marketing professionals to command new skills to supplement traditional marketing disciplines. As companies are seeking to ramp up their profiles and capabilities in new online channels there is no short term fix to this talent crisis.”
Kaynak : 