Job Market Update Nov 2020

We are sorry.  It’s been a while since we last wrote anything.  

But the great news is that WE HAVE BEEN SO SO BUSY!!!  No it’s not at the levels like it was pre-covid (but frankly that job market was a little out of control!) – but it’s busy and I’ve had a number of consultants talking about how they’ve got too many roles to recruit for right now (don’t worry, we’ve also been talking about how fortunate we are to be in this position!).

So I thought it might be a good idea to give a quick update on what is happening in the market:

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE

It’s been surprisingly (& pleasingly) busy in the A&F market – the biggest surprise has been the number of permanent vacancies that clients have needed a hand with.  Many organisations are needing people with stronger data and analysis skills and there’s been an influx in the past couple of weeks for newly created finance roles – many roles originating as organisations bring their accounting functions back from their accounting firms. 

This week, we’ve seen an increase in temp and contract roles – particularly around the transactional level – accounts payable and payroll continue to be in strong demand. We expect the temp and contract market to take off as we enter the holiday period. 

In relation to the finance area – there are some meaty BS11 projects underway and there exists a supply constraint on good risk & compliance talent.  This doesn’t look to change anytime soon so accessing talent is on organisations minds currently.

SALES & MARKETING

The FMCG sector continues to drive a lot of market activity (we have eaten and drunk our way through this!), but we’ve also seen a surge in demand from the tech sector in the past few weeks.  There are some exciting plans out there with many organisations and they are wanting to have the right people for a strong 2021.  Many marketing plans have changed with organisations considering maximising different channels moving forward.

Sales side – there is huge demand around the tech and construction sector who are looking to gear up with new talent. 

We’ve been really busy right through covid and that doesn’t look to change.  In fact, we’ve just hired ourselves and look to expand the team further in the near term.  

IT & DIGITAL

After about 6 weeks of being dominated by permanent roles, the sector has flipped back into a contract market.  The tech sector has considerable supply issues with the borders being closed.  Some large organisations with sizable transformation projects sent their contractors home in the first lockdown and are unable to get them back now.  This, coupled with some meaty, extensive projects by some large organisations means this market is going to be fiercely competitive for talent coming into 2021.

Already – we have a huge number of roles.  The challenge is to ensure that the talent is here to do the job.  Concerningly, we are seeing some rather crazy counter offers as a retention strategy. This will have an overall market impact as both existing permanent and contract resource will seek similar pay rates and we anticipate that this will push the market up (as well as creating massive pay parity issues). This has the potential to stunt the growth of some businesses (particularly those in the startup phase) as they wont have the budget to keep up with the increases that candidates could now be seeking.

Watch this space – 2021 is going to be busy!

BUSINESS SUPPORT

Probably one of the most impacted areas of the market – we are seeing increased demand for talent now.  Historically, it’s been a very talent short market, but with a few great brands being affected in covid – there was an influx of good talent which other organisations snapped up (generally into permanent roles).  

We are surprised how many particularly larger organisations are still working remotely and how this is going to impact on the future of work – especially for the business support function. 

All in all, we’ve been buoyed by the extent of the demand from our clients, and extremely grateful for the opportunity to keep busy and keep helping out.  It’s been a crazy old year so far, but we’ve also learnt a lot and are a stronger and better team as a result.

Our Covid impact survey results have been flying off the shelves – if you are a hiring manager in a specialist area and would like to know more about how other leaders are feeling right now – get in touch we’ll get a copy to you!

09 410 7235

info@consult.co.nz