The Ashdown Group Jobs Index (AGJI) tracks the number of advertised permanent jobs at the Ashdown Group and the leading Internet job boards within the IT, Marketing, Accountancy and HR sectors. Data is compiled throughout the month and released in the first few days of the following month.

February 28th 2011:
9747
points

Change since January

Headline Figure:

The Job Index has seen a rise of 4.27% in the number of advertised vacancies in February compared to January. The index now stands at its highest figure since the Ashdown Group started recording job data in June 2009. The year has started well with businesses hiring positively across all of our sectors.

Summary - Spike in Demand for Professional Staff

All sectors have shown positive growth in February following on from the buoyancy seen at the start of the year - in fact each sector is at the highest point since June 2009 when the Ashdown Group Job Index began. The HR job market and Accountancy job market were the best performers, this time showing increases of 7.02% and 5.95% respectively.

The number of vacancies being advertised within the IT sector rose by 3.19% and demand for Marketing personnel grew by 3.95%.

Short-term and medium range forecast from John Lynes, Director of the Ashdown Group: 

‘February has historically been a good month for hiring activity due to businesses gearing up for the year and an element of natural job churn within the job market. This trend has remained in 2011 with strong demand across all sectors.'

IT Recruitment Market Analysis

'Demand for IT personnel experienced a positive month during February, showing a 3.19% increase in the number of IT specific vacancies being advertised. My view on the UK IT job market remains the same as in previous months - we will continue to see growth in demand for software developers.

'With a number of recent Microsoft software releases, the short to mid term demand for IT support staff is likely to remain stable. Cloud based computing and hosting continues to drive demand for server support personnel with datacenter experience.

'Demand for opensource software continues to experience growth and this has been reflected in the software languages in demand. LAMP skills (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) remain in high demand and this is having an inflationary effect on salaries.

'Demand for mobile device based software application development skills continue to grow.'

Marketing Recruitment Market Analysis

‘The number of marketing positions being advertised during February rose by 3.95% compared to an already strong month of hiring in January.

'The marketing index stands at its highest point since we started recording data. It will be interesting to see the data produced by the Bellwether report for Q1. I am expecting to see an increase in budgets for the period versus Q4 2010 as an increase in marketing hiring usually runs in parallel with availability of budget.
The emphasis is still on marketing professionals with SEO and social marketing skills.

'We have seen an increase in the number of product marketing positions over recent months. When looking at the internet as a sales channel, I have observed a market being driven by price as consumers are able to quickly compare different online retailers. Amazon marketplace and the online insurance market are clear examples of the pressure that consumers are able to exert online. The increase in product marketing positions may be a direct response to this recent trend, with the need to position product benefits, differentiate against competitors and drive profit margins back up.’

HR Recruitment Market Analysis

‘The HR jobs market showed another strong month in February following January’s leap in demand. The number of human resources vacancies being advertised rose by 7.02% over the month, taking the index for HR jobs to its highest point since we started recording data in June 2009.

'This is excellent news for a department that has been under pressure for the past two years. To see sustained investment in HR is an indication of hiring intentions for the coming year.’

Accountancy Recruitment Market Analysis

‘After a lacklustre 2010, the Accountancy job market has rebounded with a surge in demand during the first quarter, up over 20% in the first two months.

'Accountancy personnel were amongst the slowest to embrace the idea of using the Internet to search for vacancies – this was particularly apparent amongst the qualified accountant community. The online medium has become increasingly popular, meaning greater volume of applications and faster change and churn within the accounts department. We are currently studying the breakdown of data within the accountancy market to establish whether the recent increases in volume are through expansion or churn. I will report back on this in future months.

'My view is that the demand in the accountancy sector will mirror any growth or decline in business trading volumes.'

Conclusion: 

'The first quarter of the year results have been a great relief in the face of growing negative sentiment. Increasing risks of an interest rate rise to temper rising inflation and spiraling fuel costs could yet sour business confidence for the remainder of the year. Consumer confidence is very fragile and it is important not to get carried away by headline grabbing sensationalist journalism. I will be forming my opinion on robust facts.

'There are many localised and external factors weighing on the UK economy and it is very difficult to call where we are all heading. Regardless of whether the economy is doing well or badly, the demand for mainstream IT software developers will continue unabated. Demand has outstripped supply for as long as I can remember and with the efficiency benefits of better software and the increasing competitive advantage businesses are able to leverage from this, demand is unlikely to falter. With Tier 1 Immigration effectively coming to an end in April, I predict we will enter a period of increased business costs as a direct result of salary inflation for software developers and possibly even a skills void.

'The future within our other sectors is less certain. Marketing and HR are most affected by business confidence but given the current rate of hiring, confidence is quite high. The economic indicators suggest that we are still on a bit of a knife edge. The dust seems to have settled following the recent recession - businesses that invested in their marketing effort have seen the greatest returns. It is my opinion from these bold moves that the UK economy is now benefiting. I read an interesting article in the Times at the weekend about how the John Lewis Partnership responded in the teeth of the recession and decided to hold firm and continue to invest in its restructuring and development plan. They have just rewarded their staff with an 18% bonus. I am also heartened to find that they are investing a further £600m and hiring 4300 staff this year – a lesson to us all. It is though, too easy to make knee jerk reactions based on the economic view of the media.

'For the moment the job market within our sectors is looking very strong, with every area at its highest point since we started recording job data. For now, I am going to sit on the fence with regards to making longer term predictions as we are yet to see what affect interest rate changes, increased fuel costs and global economic market uncertainty will have on the UK job market.'

About the Ashdown Group Jobs Index

The Ashdown Group is a leading specialist recruitment agency operating in the UK

The Ashdown Group Jobs Index (AGJI) tracks the number of advertised permanent jobs at the Ashdown Group and the leading Internet job boards within the IT, Marketing, Accountancy and HR sectors. Data is compiled throughout the month and released in the first few days of the following month.

Analysis and commentary is provided by John Lynes, Operations Director of the Ashdown Group.

This data, comment and associated imagery is owned by the Ashdown Group. If you would like to reproduce any of the information or analysis please do so quoting us as your source and including a backlink.

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