Blue Eskimo's salary survey delivers good and bad news for learning and development
Blue Eskimo, the specialist recruitment company for training, e-learning and technology recruitment, has just released the results of its Work and Salary Survey 2008.
In these dark economic times, it's nice to have a bit of good news - and that's what Blue Eskimo's Work and Salary Survey 2008 seems to have delivered, although it's balanced out with some less positive news too.
Nick Bate, director at Blue Eskimo, is overjoyed with the response to the survey. "Nearly 500 people responded to our invitations to the survey," says Bate. "Many of these were sent to our own database, so it demonstrates how well we connect with the learning and development market."
"One of the best things to see," says Bate, "is that most people are happy working in this industry. Less than 2% of people said that they were unhappy in their current industry and less than 1% said they were unhappy in their job. By far the biggest majority either liked their job (61.04%) or loved it (27.54%)."
As was perhaps to be expected, salaries for many (43.96%) did not rise in line with inflation, but that still meant for the majority they did, either in line with inflation (36.96%) or above the rate of inflation (19.08%).
Work/life balance took something of a blow, though, with only 20.05% of people not working a greater number of hours than they were paid for. "Perhaps it's a natural consequence of being in a job you enjoy," said Bate, "many people are customarily working unpaid for 5 hours a week (24.40%) or 10 hours a week (27.78%). A small percentage of people (3.86%) are working for more than 20 hours per week without additional pay."
Further less positive news is that more than half of the people who responded (54.59%) will be looking for a new job in 2009, the majority seeking more money (25.87%), a more interesting role (22.39%) or better career prospects (18.66%).
The current economic situation shows itself taking a toll on the industry though, with the majority saying that their jobs had become either a bit harder (43.53%) or a lot harder (17.66%) as a result of the economic downturn.
"The survey has delivered a wealth of detail at a time when it is especially valuable," concludes Bate, "and it's good to see that not all of the news is bad - though there are some things in there that employers should take note of if they want to hold onto their people. The survey will be an annual event, so it will be very interesting to compare results next year, especially if we have the difficult year that many economists are predicting."
The full survey is available for download, free of charge, from Blue Eskimo's Web site - download the free Work and Salary Survey 2008 now.