Posted in Candidates, Clients, Communications, Media, PR, Salary Survey

Whether propelled by looming public sector cuts and redundancies or just the unsettling prospect of change, enquiries from communications professionals from local councils and central government are flooding in ahead of the upcoming election. We have seen a 60% increase in applications over March compared to February.

Posted in Salary Survey

We’ve just published the findings of our annual salary survey.

The Works polled over 100 of the UK’s leading corporate, financial, consumer and technology PR agencies to provide a snapshot of the state of the recruitment market over the past twelve months and allow communications professionals to discover whether their salary is on a par with industry peers.

The survey, entitled ‘Show you the money’ and which can be viewed in full at http://www.the-works.co.uk/show-you-the-money/, has the following key findings:

• PR agencies are diversifying their business offering to provide a leaner and more integrated service in a bid to fight the recession. 74% of respondents plan to expand their service offerings this year. The main growth areas are digital services and crisis and issues PR, with 40% and 47% of respondents looking to move in these sectors respectively. With social networking sites soaring in popularity, 85% of consumer agencies plan to move into digital services.
• The credit crunch has had a profound effect on the technology sector with a huge increase (over 200%) in demand for digital expertise. This trend contrasts with the significant reduction in demand for financial technology candidates in line with the collapse of the financial markets.
• A desire to move in-house was prominent at all levels, with 90% of consumer PR candidates registering an interest in an in-house role. Respondents cited greater job security, a better work/life balance and the opportunity to focus on the communications of one company as motivating factors.
• The recession has brought an end to salary inflation seen over the past decade with 73% of agencies polled anticipating salaries will stay the same. Consultancies are instead offering their employees non-financial incentives such as flexible working.

Sarah Leembruggen, The Works’ Managing Partner, says: “Agencies are becoming leaner and meaner in a bid to survive the recession, holding on to the most talented staff yet diversifying their business offerings to become more competitive. New business push, particularly in digital services, seems to be the main priority for surviving 2009.”