Gerard Koolen
The MediaMonitor, a survey which follows all the personnel advertisements in the national newspapers in Slovakia, shows a surprising change in who exactly is considered to fall into the category of most wanted professionals.
The previous year, about one third of all advertisements were for sales professions. The first quarter of this year has already shown a decline to 17% - a drop of almost half. And, as we already expected, professions in Information & Communication Technology (ICT) are gaining an ever-growing share of the marketplace.
For the second quarter of the year we expect this trend to continue, and we are also expecting to see a furthering of marketing positions, gaining market share in comparison to last year. The category of Professions in Development has swapped its position with that of professionals wanted in Health Care. The following list shows numbers of advertised positions, by category.
1.Sales1,163,394
2.ICT Professions 844,290
3.Financial 803,493
4.Administrative 727,255
5.Accountancy 704,407
6.Marketing 634,411
7.Health Care 572,698
8.Banking 454,262
9.Management 431,800
10.Development 399,446
Looking at the placement of recruitment ads, national newspapers as a whole realised a gross turnover in the first quarter of 15,670,946 Slovak crowns in personnel advertisements. It is interesting that Hospodarské Noviny in the Czech Republic alone realised a turnover of 21,782,456 Czech crowns during the same period. If we look at the Top 10 of biggest advertisers in Slovakia concerning personnel advertisements, we see two recruiters in first (Lugera & Maklér) and second place (Hill International). This is remarkable if only because for the last year recruiters did not play a major role in the Top 10.
This certainly is an indication that business is increasing and that many companies are expanding their staff. The Top 10 biggest personnel advertisers is as follows, ranked by expenditures in Slovak crowns on personnel advertising:
1.Lugera & Maklér 413,182
2.Hill International350,012
3.Kaufland v.o.s.330,759
4.Globtel GSM282,450
5.Trends Trading Slovakia 245,606
6.Hypovereinsbank231,000
7.Carrefour Slovakia225,780
8.SWH Siemens207,106
9.Allianz165,722
10.OB Leasing160,966
In 1999 the major share in personnel ads was taken by the financial sector. The first quarter of this year shows the rise of recruiters, hypermarkets and ICT. We foresee that this trend will also continue and that the ICT advertisers will gain more market share, together with recruiters.
Gerard Koolen is a partner at Lugera & Maklér. His column appears monthly. Send comments or questions to gkoolen@lugera.sk.
