10/08/2005 Top-Consultant.com can this week exclusively reveal that recruitment activity within the consulting sector has reached a new 5 year high. With consulting revenues growing robustly, firms have been fighting over the best candidates for most of the last year. But with the Big Four accounting firms ramping up their consulting activities, there’s now an added impetus pushing up demand for experienced consulting hires.
Job board advertising activity for the May – July 2005 period has hit a five year high on Top-Consultant, matched by record candidate application levels during the period. The summer lull is proving to be something of a myth, with neither recruiters nor candidates showing any let-up in their activity levels.
"That the Top-Consultant jobs board is breaking new records at the same time we are running our first Earl’s Court careers fair demonstrates just how strong the demand for candidates has now become," commented Top-Consultant Director Tony Restell. "Over 40 firms and 300 recruiters are now attending the October event and the fear was that firms might have switched their budgets from the job board to the careers fair. In practice consulting firms are eager to do everything they can to reach quality candidates and the careers fair has had no impact on the jobs board figures, which are now stronger than ever."
The latest results reaffirm the headcount requirements figures that the team compiled earlier this summer. Based on industry growth and staff turnover figures, they showed how the recruitment needs of consulting firms have ballooned in the last two years. The average firm now needs to hire fee-earning staff amounting to a third of their headcount each year, just to counter staff attrition and meet growing client demand. The re-emergence of the Big Four as consulting suppliers sees this trend continue into 2006 and beyond.
So it’s a great time to be a candidate looking for a job in consulting (University finalists included) and a stressful time to be a consulting recruiter fighting it out in an increasingly tight market