Recruitment consultants are all in agreement that things have picked up rapidly. Sinead Hasson of RP Cushing sums up: 'In early 2004 the jobs market began to gather momentum - strongly after the first quarter. Companies are more optimistic, and looking to expand, while people have started to really think about their careers again and look around'.

There are slight variations in terms of which months were busiest - Personnel Resources' Julian Hadfield points to an immediate take-off with the new year: 'in January 2004 it was as if the floodgates had opened, with more vacancies in the first two weeks than in November and December combined'. However, one fairly common theme is that whereas July and August normally see a slowdown in recruitment activity, this year it didn't happen. 'The Summer was particularly busy' says PJ's Nicky Geen, 'compared to previous summers, with July, in particular, seeing an extremely high level of activity'. Debby Robson of SLS says that 'The market in respect of numbers of vacancies has been very active throughout 2004 - and there has been no real let-up in July and August'.

Sal/Ad Days
	Recruiters Views Mean salaries for UK Exec, Field & IT/DP positions on MrWeb

Apart from the sheer number of vacancies, there are several respects in which 2004 has been a good year for candidates. 'Insight jobs as a whole have been more varied and interesting and the range of salaries broader' says Damon Thomas of ENI. Furthermore, the usual phenomenon of the number of candidates available failing to keep up with the swift rise in vacancy numbers has led to an interesting change in the outlook of some agencies. 'More clients are advertising directly as well' says Debby Robson 'but not to great avail. What has changed in the last two months is the greater preparedness of our MR agency clients to consider candidates...

	1.		from abroad, who have not worked in the UK before, albeit with nationality in the EU
	2.		requiring sponsorship
	3.		with short term visas - say a year
	4.		only interested in contract work
	5.		wanting part-time

By no means all agencies are thinking like this, but 'a notable few''.

Clive Warren of CSA agrees that the lack of candidates has meant clients are willing to look at transferable skills more favourably than usual - and adds 'It also had the effect of increasing the value, in terms of salary, of any good candidates - so salaries advertised and paid rose slightly during this period'. Damon Thomas is also cautiously optimistic: 'salaries have not moved tremendously but there has been an increase overall. Competition for good candidates is high so salaries have been forced up'.

Salary rises mostly started in the third quarter and at certain levels

are not yet very significant. Sinead Hasson thinks 'the industry needs to look at salaries again and make them more attractive'. In particular, we at MrWeb have long been predicting that salaries for the junior-to-middle levels RE and SRE are due for an increase to match rises in more senior positions, but for the most part they are still waiting. 'More junior levels are still being paid poorly relative to time/effort and location' agrees Debby Robson, adding that 'The pay differences between London and the provinces do not reflect the significantly higher living / travelling costs in the capital'. Robson suggests that the shortage of good SRE candidates (perennial, but especially noticeable at present) is possibly a result of reduced graduate recruitment in the early 2000s. Maybe - we think - it's also to do with the salaries being offered. There are some higher salaries for SREs emerging at present (many at £30k now, ie in July to September) but some lower figures are still holding the mean back. 'We have had our first few reaching £30K and this is with the bigger agencies who are normally very rigid on their salary bands' says Emily Stamp of PSD, encouragingly. The most significant salary change of 2004 has been in the last few months and for our most senior category, Director plus - a large number of very highly paid jobs have lifted the mean for this group by more than £4,000 to over £60,000 per annum. Taking each level / function in turn... Entry level RE / JRE positions have bounced back from a disappointing second half of 2003, to a salary above 19k (and in the third quarter this showed signs of moving ahead to a new record - it's currently around 20k). The number of such positions advertised in early '04 was double that for the previous 6 months, although the rate has slowed down again since the end of June, to something like that of late 2003. The number of RE and SRE jobs continues to climb, SREs particularly steeply in early 2004 to a record 520 jobs with salaries advertised, up 25%. The level above, which for agency side we label 'Project Manager', has seen a rise of nearly 40% in numbers advertised. Salaries for REs and SREs have remained fairly constant, but for SREs the modest 400 increase is perhaps the first sign of the long awaited leap, judging by recruiter comments. The mean Project Manager salary is up £800, with signs of a further big increase to come. Client side RM level jobs have seen a dip in mean salary after recent strong rises. There has not been the big boom in numbers of such jobs that has been seen on the agency side. Associate Director salaries have recovered the ground they lost in late 2003 and are bounding ahead again, but the number of ads is the real surprise - this year's figure looks likely to be 40% up on last year's.

Were there any specific sectors within MR, or levels of seniority, which differed greatly from the rest? Nicky Geen PJ: 'Merges and re-structures among the bigger agencies this year have caused a fair amount of uncertainty. Also, we've noticed the re-emergence of a lot of the smaller companies, who haven't been recruiting for the last couple of years and also the emergence of some completely new agencies, which is always a good sign. 'Client side seem to be much more flexible in terms of the type of people they are recruiting, In fact, for many of these roles, clients are specifically looking to recruit people from outside of their particular sector, in order to bring in a fresh and different perspective to the role'. Emily Stamp, PSD: 'Clients appear open to new ideas and online research which can offer a fast, efficient and perhaps cheaper option has therefore seen an increase. Online companies have therefore seen an increase in demand opening new opportunities in this area'. Damon Thomas, ENI: 'Client side research both FMCG, Manufacturing and Service Sector have seen a big increase in jobs, with many new roles within the teams being created. Opportunities here have increased. We are certainly seeing more senior roles on the market as well which is great'. Julian Hadfield, Personnel Resources: 'This was initially an effect seen at more junior levels but since March/April this year, probably due to new financial years and budgets being agreed, the demand for staff is now high up to Board Director level... Personnel Resources is also receiving very upbeat feedback from many of its clients who are reporting that they have already hit, or are close to hitting their annual budgets in only 7 months and therefore needing talent at all levels to help manage and develop the business'.

Salaries for those at Director level and above have leapt in the last quarter after solid growth in the first half of the year - this is due to a significant number of very well paid jobs, although not necessarily a higher concentration of jobs above Director level (ie CEO, MD, Divisional Director, Partner etc..) - there are some big salaries for common or garden directors too. However, it does not reflect an end to lower paid directors' jobs so much as a spreading out at the higher end. The number of Director+ ads has climbed rapidly over the last four years - in 2000 we had about 100, and in 2004 we expect more than 400.

There are a large number of ads now being coded as 'Analyst', often in tandem with other codes. These may or may not have the actual title 'analyst' or include the word in a longer title - jobs are coded based on description rather than title: all will involve a high degree of analytical work relative to primary research and they may be combined with statistical skills, segmentation, database management, information management and strategic consultancy duties. Numbers of ads and salaries have not been separately reported in the past as the ads were relatively rare, but their proliferation can be seen from the fact that 130 were posted in the first 6 months of the year and 95 in the 3rd quarter.

The number of field and IT/DP jobs advertised continues to rise rapidly - at present more rapidly than exec jobs - but salaries fluctuate, as much as anything reflecting the fact that these tags cover all levels from Assistant Field Controller to Field Director and from DP Assistant to DP Director and Senior Specwriter.

What can we expect in the future? Apart that is from market research moving forward into 'broad, sunlit uplands' where everyone is well paid, works a 30 hour week and is invited into the boardroom daily to give opinions in place of sacked management consultants? [Revelations Chapter 10 verses 1-5]. But in all seriousness, we never thought we'd hear a recruitment consultant say anything like this:

'Since the return from summer holidays, the market has exploded, with high calibre candidates at all levels emerging from wherever they have been hiding. Clients are taking advantage of this. Headcounts for 2005 are only just being looked at, but the bullish atmosphere is leading to clients taking on talent as and when they come across it. I don't think they're being less selective, but they are being opportunistic - they know they will need people and when a good one comes along, with the right experience, they are taking them on'.

So... confident, strategically minded employers finding themselves in a position to store up talent for the future? All right, it was only for a brief spell this summer, and not every recruiter noticed the 'explosion' as such. Nevertheless, let's make the most of it, and let's hope salaries in those 'engine room' roles are ready to follow.

Nick Thomas

Mean salaries for UK Exec positions on MrWeb in £ sterling
Base (shown in brackets for each): all jobs advertised with salaries or salary ranges
	2nd half 2001	1st half 2002	2nd half 2002	1st half 2003	2nd half 2003	1st half 2004
Entry level RE	17,700 (41)	18,100 (38)	19,500 (37)	19,700 (48)	18,600 (64)	19,200 (129)
RE	22,600 (186)	23,500 (163)	22,800 (163)	23,300 (249)	22,500 (321)	22,500 (395)
SRE	27,400 (217)	28,400 (295)	28,100 (261)	27,800 (335)	27,500 (415)	27,900 (520)
Project Manager	29,400 (98)	30,700 (143)	31,800 (143)	33,100 (195)	31,600 (267)	32,400 (369)
Research Manager	34,900 (107)	36,200 (165)	34,600 (144)	38,200 (150)	38,600 (187)	36,800 (184)
AD	37,100 (111)	41,000 (148)	39,700 (165)	41,000 (187)	39,800 (216)	40,600 (293)
Director	56,800 (60)	53,200 (87)	56,200 (85)	55,200 (148)	55,500 (165)	56,600 (197)
Mean Salaries for Field & IT/DP Positions (all levels therefore influenced by seniority of positions posted)
	2nd half 2001	1st half 2002	2nd half 2002	1st half 2003	2nd half 2003	1st half 2004
Field	23,300 (48)	23,900 (50) 24	300 (40)	24,200 (48)	26,300 (83)	25,800 (183)
IT/DP	28,800 (88)	25,400 (58) 26	800 (54)	26,800 (62)	25,700 (68)	27,100 (118)
Salaries shown do not include benefits, packages or bonuses. Note that mean salaries are for interest only and do not serve as a guide to what constitutes good remuneration for particular levels of seniority ñ nor do they take account of sector, working conditions etc ... Please use with caution!