Creative employment update 2003, by Aquent

Encouraging outlook for creative professionals in Australia

As a global staffing agency specialising in the Creative, Marketing and Communications industries and proud career partner of AGDA, Aquent is in the unique position of having its finger on the pulse of employment trends in the Australian and global Creative job markets. Our team in Australia are always happy to keep creative professionals apprised of the current employment situation. Generally, the news is hopeful with pockets of good opportunities. Here's a market-by-market report.

Sydney

Overall, the Sydney creative market is extremely buoyant at the moment. With the onset of Annual Report season, the need for experienced freelance Typesetters/Mac Operators has taken off. Clients are asking for Talent who have a history of working on multiple page reports and prospectuses, and who are familiar with style sheets and financials. Bookings for these sorts of roles are lengthy in comparison to all other bookings and tend to run for four to six weeks in duration.

Other areas of demand include freelance Mid-weight to Senior Designers with proven artwork skills in Design, Corporate Communications and Advertising. In some cases, clients who are extremely busy may even take two or three Talent if they have these all-around skills.

As always, Packaging continues to remain the key area in demand and also the most difficult in which to find good Talent. Companies are taking staff directly from their competition, however this still does not seem to reduce the level of demand.

With InDesign becoming increasingly more popular, we now have several clients wanting Mac/PC-based Operators who use this particular software. We are also always searching for strong DTP/Word/PowerPoint Talent on both Mac and PCs. QuarkXPress on PC is also an area where we occasionally struggle to find Talent and could certainly place them if they were available.

The permanent Creative market in Sydney has shown a distinct improvement in recent months, with several of our clients' new business billings for the year, to date, showing significant (percentile) increases compared to the same period last year. This has, obviously, had a knock on effect to the permanent recruitment market, as clients have calculated what they have spent on freelance dollars in the last financial year and have realised that a new hire is a justified long-term expenditure.

There has been a general mood of optimism throughout the Creative market, but companies are still showing a reluctance to hire permanent staff, in most instances, until it becomes obvious that either the workload is becoming too much for the existing staff, freelance costs are spiraling upward or somebody leaves.

Positions in demand vary for the different sectors:

Advertising agencies:

80% Production-based roles (Mac Operators, Studio Managers Traffic and Production Managers) and 20% Design/Mac Operator roles. More and more agencies are now requiring good conceptual Designers who can take their work through to finished art.

Design agencies:

50% Finished Art roles and 50% Designer roles (mainly senior branding/packaging/corporate)

Corporate:

90% Desktop Publishers and 10% straight Production

Publishing:

80% Production work and 20% Design-based
The positions in the most demand this year have been Finished Artists and all-around Designers/Mac Operators and Packaging specialists.

Melbourne

So far, 2003 has proven to be an inspiring year. Salaries are finally on the rise after remaining stagnant for the last two years. July and August have proven that clients are prepared to make permanent hiring decisions and it appears that this trend will continue in the coming months. The other emerging trend is the temp-to-perm scenario that allows for the Client and Talent to be completely assured that the right decision is being made. There has been almost no demand for part- time permanent staff because employers prefer to have the flexibility of freelancers to cover this long term, low volume need.

Permanent positions which are in the highest demand include: Packaging Finished Artists and Mid-weight and Senior Graphic Designers with strong branding experience.

The freelance market has also shown healthy signs of growth. With steady requirements throughout the first half of the year, we are now experiencing a flurry of needs which appears as though it will continue through until the end of 2003. The largest increase in demand has come from the larger national and international design studios as well as boutique and growing Advertising agencies. The positions in the highest demand are Senior Mac Operators and Multi-disciplinary Mid-weight Designers.

We are also experiencing an increased call for Mac Operators and Designers using InDesign over QuarkXPress.

Over and over again our clients are asking for Designers who have the 'freelance' attitude and who aren't 'precious.' Additionally, the standard of measure is attention to detail and speed.

Brisbane

2003 has certainly been an interesting year for the Brisbane Creative market. Freelance skills, including Finished Artists and Mac Operators, continue to be in demand.

Speed and accuracy are the most sought after skills and the ability to use Quick Cut can make the difference between a good and great placement in a busy studio. The only other skills that will guarantee you work are, as always, a great attitude and motivation.

The majority of roles have a mix of 80% production and 20% design.

Permanent opportunities continue to be slim on the ground, while we are still seeing a trend where clients produce a long wish list of skills and attributes. It can prove quite challenging to reasonably meet such expectations.

We are seeing many clients migrating from QuarkXPress to InDesign, so now is the opportunity to up-skill yourself. Quite a few training courses are now available for conversions from QuarkXPress to InDesign, but if you're not sure where to go, call your local Aquent Area Manager.

Australian contacts

All Aquent staff are happy to be of assistance, so please feel free to give them a call or send them an email anytime.

Nick Dean, Sydney Creative Team Leader
T: 02 8288 8288
ndean@aquent.com

Fiona Cochran, Brisbane Area Manager
T: 07 3839 4300
fcochran@aquent.com

Michelle Tickle, Melbourne Area Manager
T: 03 9244 9999
mtickle@aquent.com

To contact any of Aquent's International offices, please go to the locations page on our web site:

http://www.aquent.com/loc_NA.html