Personnel ads tell interesting tale

Gerard Koolen

/Tab.a/ Expenditures.../

An increase in vacancies is usually a sound indicator that the economy is getting better. We can confirm this development in our recruitment practice. Nearly all our clients are increasing their investments and activities in Slovakia, and consequently need more people to realise their expansion. We have also seen more companies entering the Slovak market, while more and more Slovak companies are increasing their headcounts. This would indicate that many Slovak companies have recovered and have successfully adapted to the Slovak market.

If we look at the Top 5 Personnel advertisers in October, we see three Slovak companies. Before, the Top 5 was dominated by international companies:

/Tab. b/ Money.../

Based on these results, it seems that the Slovak economy is on its way up. Production companies are especially doing well, and the commercial sector is constantly expanding its headcount. Also, in October about 32% of all advertised vacancies were for commercial jobs and sales positions in particular, continuing a trend we have seen for more than two years. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) vacancies in firms are also increasing, with ICT vacancies now already 14% of the total personnel advertisements. One year ago this figure was only 5%. And the growth has not yet come to an end.

This also means that it is becoming more and more difficult for ICT companies to attract the right people, and because of this we are seeing a vast increase in salaries in this sector.

Next month's article will discuss salaries in the ICT sector as well as some other labour market developments in this particular branch.

Tab. 1 :Expenditures on personnel ads (in million Sk)