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.

November 26th 2010:
8732
points

Change since October

Headline Figure:

In November, demand for Marketing and Information Technology staff grew and there was a small fall in demand for HR and Accountancy personnel.

The Ashdown Group Jobs Index rose +2.23% and now stands at 8732, showing a 25% increase in demand over the past 12 months. 

Summary - Job Market Ends the Year on a High

In November the number of advertised IT jobs climbed 3.97%.
Growth in demand for Accountancy staff faltered, dropping by -2.13% since October.
Demand for Human Resources staff fell by -0.7%.
The number of jobs advertised in the Marketing sector grew by 4.77%.

As predicted at the beginning of the year, the Information Technology market saw the strongest increase in demand with 31% growth over the past 12 months. The Marketing sector grew by just shy of 20%, HR and Accountancy grew by 24% and 14% respectively.

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

‘I am delighted that the job market has rebounded from last month’s figures. Across our customer base, we have been hearing lots of success stories and continue to see a rise in demand for our services. Any fall in demand appeared to be out of caution (as a result of negative media coverage) rather than a reflection of the actual trading conditions.

‘Our view for next year is increasingly positive. 2010 has proven to be a very successful year for the professional job market.’

IT Recruitment Market Analysis

‘Having spent the entire year with a positive outlook on demand for Information Technology staff, our view remains the same for 2011. We predict that over the coming years, demand will remain high for IT staff but will change shape. I would like to make the following predictions for 2011 and beyond.

‘The concept of Cloud Computing will continue to grow; we believe demand will be strongest in the SME sector as the cost savings will be most obvious. As the IT real estate within firms is up for renewal, Cloud Computing will represent a viable solution as confidence builds in its reliability. Many larger firms adopted this model before the label ‘Cloud Computing’ materialized.

‘The use of ‘smart’ phones will increase dramatically as phone vendors include the technology in their devices as standard. We believe that mobile handsets will in time become the primary source of Internet access for consumers.

‘Market size for home based PC’s will shrink and laptops will be replaced by ‘tablet style’ alternatives such as the iPad.

‘The use of and general acceptance of open source software will continue to grow.

‘To satisfy the above, we believe the demand for software development skills will rocket during 2011. With demand already outstripping supply, there will be serious pressure on permanent salaries and the contract market for these skills will continue to grow.

‘It is my belief that with a cap on UK immigration and a dwindling IT talent pool leaving university, the UK based demand for software development skills will continue to be outsourced offshore, culminating in a long term UK-wide ‘technology skills brain-drain’.

‘There is a potential situation where efficiencies gained from convergence of IT infrastructure in the form of consolidated storage and VMWare along with outsourcing IT to datacenters ‘in the Cloud’ will create a drop in demand for internal IT infrastructure staff and a continued increase in demand for external IT communications, security and firewall based technology specialists. We do not see this as an overnight shift in demand for personnel but a progressive change over a number of years.'

Marketing Recruitment Market Analysis

‘Demand for Marketing personnel is now standing at the 2nd highest point since the Ashdown Group started publicly reporting jobs based data in June 2009. I believe this to be really great news as we have found marketing behavior directly correlates to business confidence.

‘I had been surprised to see a fall in demand during October and I am glad to see it bounce back during November. According to the Bellwether report, marketing spend during Q3 edged up slightly. We have found a direct correlation between this report and demand for staff albeit that the data is historic.

‘Online Marketers are still in greatest demand. As marketing and advertising spend continue to grow in this area, knowledge of the online market for the placement of marketing material has become ‘business as normal’ for many marketing staff, with it seen as just another channel.

‘There is still an air of mystique surrounding SEO skills as the various search engine algorithms and presentation of search results are moving faster than it is possible for in-house business knowledge to keep pace. Demand for these skills especially on a consultancy basis continue to grow, representing one of the fastest moving job markets, demand is plentiful and we are seeing multiple job offers for specialists in this field.

‘I am confident that marketing skills will be in high demand throughout 2011.’

HR Recruitment Market Analysis

‘During November there was another small drop in the number of HR jobs advertised, this time the market dropped by -0.7%. Despite the last two months small falls, the HR market has had a good run over the past 12 months with the number of HR related vacancies up 24% on this time last year.

‘I predict a good year for the Human Resources department next year.

‘Last January we saw new HR budgets being freed up, which in turn produced a demand spike for Human Resources staff. This year’s hiring statistics are being taken from a much higher base so it will be interesting to see what happens.’

Accountancy Recruitment Market Analysis

‘Demand within the accountancy job market fell by -2.13% during November. This may appear a small drop but in terms of the usual monthly swing in demand within the accountancy sector, it represents a dramatic shift.

‘The spread of jobs in November was well balanced between qualified and entry level accountancy positions. There has been a slight increase in the number of practice based accountancy positions.

‘My longer term view of the accountancy job market is that it will become faster moving with a greater amount of churn within lower level positions, as junior recruits seek improvements in remuneration.'

Conclusion: 

'There is obviously some uncertainty in the job market and this is precipitating widespread caution. In contrast, most industry data is suggesting that businesses are standing up quite well to difficult trading conditions and this has certainly been reflected in the strong FTSE progress during the October period.

'The Ashdown Group has continued to see good results during Q3 and is well ahead of target for the year. Looking to the future, we are cautiously optimistic based on our customers’ current business performance and their planned hiring activity.'

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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