“Agencies to feel recruitment slide”
The full brunt of the economic downturn on sales and marketing roles has not yet been felt, with the agency sector most likely to experience further recruitment cutbacks, a report by Link Recruitment has revealed.
The firm’s sales and marketing review and outlook indicated New South Wales has been most affected by tightening advertising budgets with the number of sales and marketing positions available dropping by 37.5% by the end of last year. Agencies have been hit harder than inhouse, client-side positions with job vacancies falling by 17% compared to 2007/2008 figures.
However in-house roles are expected to be under increased scrutiny as all sectors come under pressure to reduce marketing headcount. In sales, companies are cutting back on middle management sales positions that do not impact directly on revenue.
The report suggests sales and marketing jobs will become scarcer due to the continued decline in ad budgets and the slowing of high-investment sectors including manufacturing, banking, finance and retail. Many companies within these sectors will reduce their in-house sales force in line with slowing revenue, while temporary and contract roles are expected to increase.
The report also indicated that many companies are turning to communications specialists in order to retain and attract new business.
Author: CELIA JOHNSON
ProGrad would like to thank James Livesley from B&T Magazine/ B&T Today for allowing ProGrad to publish this article.
"Agencies to feel recruitment slide", MaRch 2009