Digital and Direct Marketing Hiring Plans Show Strong Rebound
Note from Jim: I’ll be back from vacation next week with new content. In the meantime, this information from a press release from Jerry Bernhart of Bernhart Associates Executive Search paints a picture of some good news for our industry.
What recession?
Digital and direct marketers are planning a major ramp-up in hiring this winter, according to Bernhart Associates' latest Quarterly Digital and Direct Marketing Employment Report.
"All of our major indicators are showing significant improvement," said Jerry Bernhart, Principal of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC. "As far as hiring goes, digital and direct marketers are back on a growth trajectory."
Bernhart stated that the record number of responses received for quarter one (Q1)-544 in total-now rivals other private employment surveys conducted for major occupational segments of the US economy.
Here are the key findings from the Q1 survey:
·46% of the respondents said they will add to staff during the first quarter of 2010, rebounding from 30% last quarter. The biggest hiring surge will be among suppliers, while marketers plan the least amount of new hiring.
·Companies reporting Q1 hiring freezes plunged to 26%, compared with 45% in Q4.
·The percentage of companies planning layoffs in Q1 dropped slightly to 7%. Not one agency or supplier who responded to the survey said it expected further layoffs.
·Among employers who imposed pay cuts last year, 37% said they plan to either partially or fully reinstate those reductions in 2010. Only 20% said pay cuts will remain in effect for this year, and 43% said they are unsure when salaries will be restored to previous levels.
Bernhart said that, while Q1 survey results clearly indicate that digital and direct marketing is outpacing the overall US economy in terms of recovering lost jobs, marketers continue to feel the economic strain.
"About half of the client-side marketers who participated in our first-quarter survey said they still have a hiring freeze. Hiring on the supplier side, by contrast, is on a fast track with more than 60% telling us they plan to add to head count this quarter. We haven't seen numbers in that range for more than two years."
- People:
- Jerry Bernhart
- Jim Gilbert
- Places:
- US
Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.
