PR Is Third Fastest Sector For Rising Job Demand.

Employment Agency Reed recently gained coverage yesterday on the BBC with news that it has recorded a rise of 1% in job vacancies over April compared with March (although the BBC has actually got the date wrong in their article). Its statement was based on its own, newly created employment index, The Reed Job Index, where data is apparently taken from their own job board figures, recording monthly advertised jobs from 8,000 recruiters across 37 career sectors throughout the UK.



Generally, the impression it gives is mixed, with a positive 1% rise tempered by 4.2% decline in average wages, although its important to remember that this is across 37 sectors.



The figures were in fact released before the general election on 5th May 2010 (presumably as a Q1 report), prompting Martin Warnes, Managing Director of Reed.co.uk, to suggest



"… the Index figures offer more signs of nervousness than confidence at the moment…Employers seem to be waiting to see the outcome of the General Election, so they can factor the result into their forward plans for jobs."



It will therefore be interesting to see how their new index performs over the quarter post-election.



However, the BBC reported that, according to Reed, job demand rose most in the charity and voluntary sectors, followed by marketing, public relations, legal and secretarial. So while, as Warnes suggests, the overall impression in the jobs market is of uncertainty, the silver lining for PR people is that they seem to be in demand to allay that uncertainty, and the rise in marketing jobs suggests that recovering businesses are putting money into self promotion again.



All good news for PR.