Latest Employment Report a Reason to Smile
Dear Readers,
Today I bring you the latest quarterly employment survey from Bernhart Associates. I find it very encouraging, and hope you will too. A rebound in hiring in the direct and cross-channel retail industries spells good news for all of us — and the economy in general. Here's the press release circulated this week by Bernhart Associates outlining the survey's findings:
Digital and direct marketers are planning a surge in hiring this winter with agencies leading the way, according to Bernhart Associates’ Quarterly Digital and Direct Marketing Employment Report for the first quarter of 2011.
“I expected a bounce, but nothing like this, which is very encouraging,” said Jerry Bernhart, principal of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC, which conducts the
quarterly employment survey. “This is the most positive quarterly improvement we’ve ever seen in the 11-year history of our quarterly survey.”
The following are key findings from the survey:
- 52 percent of companies responding to the survey said they plan to add staff in Q1, up from 41 percent last quarter;
- 16 percent of respondents currently have a hiring freeze, down sharply from 35 percent in Q4;
- the percentage of companies planning layoffs in Q1 dropped to 4 percent vs. 8 percent last quarter; and
- 63 percent of agencies responding to the survey said they plan to add staff, with none planning cutbacks and only one reporting a hiring freeze.
Survey results reveal that marketing hiring budgets are still being pinched on the client side, which are lagging the agencies and service providers in planned hiring. But Bernhart notes that nearly one out of every two marketers still will have positions to fill in the current quarter.
“B-to-B hiring plans outpaced B-to-C, and also reported fewer expected layoffs and hiring freezes,” added Bernhart.
While direct marketing may not reach the boom levels seen prior to 2008, Bernhart expects hiring to continue building momentum in 2011, noting the following key
trends:
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.
