We have been asked by a number of Clients and Applicants alike what trends we expect to see within the Marketing and Digital employment market in 2021. Our thoughts are as follows;

Insight No.1: Some Industries are Impervious to Lockdown.

As a Recruitment Consultancy, we scan the market to learn which companies and sectors are hiring. When the first lockdown came in March, many organisatations implemented hiring freezes and many more were waiting for the lockdown to end and normality to resume (which it still hasn’t).

It soon became clear that it was not the end of the world and companies who could continue to do business despite lockdowns did so and continued to hire. These industries included:

  • Pharma and Biotech
  • Software and Tech
  • eCommerce Businesses
  • FMCG
  • Logistics
  • Gambling and eGaming

Companies operating in these sectors continued to operate and will continue to operate despite the spike and drop of cases.

Insight No.2: What Skills are in High Demand?

As businesses were made to work remotely and adapt to lockdowns, we saw an increase in the demand for those with key digital skills in areas such as eCommerce, Digital Marketing, UX/UI Design and Product.

Virgin Media Research conducted a survey which found that 37% of respondents said they began shopping online for the first time at the start of the pandemic and 47% of respondents said they’re shopping more online than before due to the pandemic. (MII)

We believe this shift in consumer behavior was a driving factor for the increase in demand for digital skills. As a recommendation, we would suggest upskilling and reskilling in areas such as eCommerce and Digital marketing as those who can help a business sell online will be in high demand and short supply.

It’s also worth mentioning that the demand for these skills are here to stay and are not a trend that will subside as even when COVID is a thing of the past, remote working is here to stay in some capacity.

What Do We Expect Moving Forward?

Insight No 3: We Expect A 20% Increase in Job Flow

Looking forward, we expect a 20% uplift in job flow this year compared to last year. This will be driven by the backlog of demand for new talent in areas that were negatively impacted by COVID such as tourism, hospitality and retail.

Despite the fact that we are back in a lockdown now it will be reminiscent of March last year and things should continue as they did in Quarters 3 and 4 of last year which saw a strong uplift in activity. All businesses will be more resilient to lockdown now after adapting over the past number of months.

Insight No 4: Remote Working and Its Impact

Based on an employee sentiment survey we carried out in November 2020, 100% answered that they believe remote working is here to stay while 0% believe it will be back to the office as it was. Breaking it down further, 61.63% believe most companies will offer flexibility around remote working while 33.72% it will be only be a minority of companies that will offer flexibility rather than the majority.

Remote working means that employers are also not bound by geographical boundaries when looking to recruit. In the past, a Dublin based organisation would only hire someone in Dublin or who could commute to Dublin on a regular basis. This had led to the housing crisis and Dublin being ranked as the 8th most expensive city in the world to rent. Surpassing cities such as Sydney, Toronto, Dubai and Chicago. (Business Insider)

Moving forward, that same company can expand their search and recruit someone anywhere in Ireland which will level the playing field in terms of opportunities across the country. A negative effect of this could be companies looking to hire people internationally which may lead to extra competition for those of us living in Ireland as well as a downward pressure on salaries.

In Conclusion

Overall, we are highly optimistic as we venture into 2021 that we will see things continue to improve as they have been since the latter stages of 2020.

We expect to see a strong uplift in job flow across all sectors, some will be more effected by COVID and restrictions that others and we expect those to have a strong drive on recruitment as the country is vaccinated and things begin to return to, dare I say, normal.

From our own perspective, we are going to be hiring and increasing the size of our team here at Connexus this year, starting this month, and have big plans to grow the brand over the coming months.

If you’re interested in any of the points that we have mentioned above and would like to discuss it further, we would be more than happy to have a conversation. You can get in touch with us via LinkedIn or our website.