UK vacancy and salary stats show MR back on its feet

Figures for job postings and mean salaries from MrWeb for the first six months of the year show an industry returning to normal. Mean salaries are higher than in the first half of 2001 and numbers of jobs advertised are very similar. There has been a significant shift towards recruitment of senior people and away from junior, and a steep rise in client side hirings since March. Detailed stats will appear in MRWho later this week.

The figures are hot off the press - they cover all advertised jobs / salaries up to and including Friday 28th June, a total of 1,060 since Jan 1st.

The number of RE positions advertised is almost one third down whilst the number of director and MD level positions is up by more than half. Agency side Project Manager level ads are 50% up on previous half years.

Recruitment of Directors, Project Managers, SREs and REs increased from early 2002, but ADs only from April onwards. There has been a dramatic rise in the number of clientside Research Manager positions advertised in the last 3 months - from 67 in Jan/Feb/March 2002 to 103 in April/May/June.

Salaries are at their highest level yet. The overall mean salary rose only 0.3% in the last half of 2001 - lower than inflation - but is up c.3% since the turn of the year.

These strong salary rises took place in the first quarter of the year. For most job titles, they have levelled off - ie fallen slightly - in the second quarter.

The rise in the overall number of vacancies advertised reflects a very active April and May and disguises a sleepy June - World Cup watching and early summer holidays seem to have been the order of the day, or rather the month.

More detailed comment, together with graphs and statistics, will appear in the monthly People and Skills in MR supplement, MRWho, published this week. To subscribe to MRWho, email mrwho@mrweb.com giving your name, job title, company name and email address - these are used for our statistics only and subscription is free.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.