More evidence of an upturn -- for some

On Monday, SOLO IP commented on the suggestion that the job market for IP practitioners was up 15% over the previous six months. Some corroboration for the notion that there is a bit of a pick-up comes in a press release this Tuesday from InterExec ("who act as confidential Agents for Senior Executives earning £150k to £1m+"), say that there has been a 14% increase in the number of unadvertised vacancies notified to them in July/August, with a 35% increase in the professional services sector. InterExec adds, "Recruitment of Senior Executives usually precedes the recruitment of more junior positions, so the 14% increase, which follows a 40% increase in the first half of 2013, would indicate that there is likely to be a substantial increase in broader recruitment over the next six months".  The company's figures, which are broken down by sector, show that the growth is not evenly spread.  Financial service are still limping along with a growth rate, if you can call it that, of around 0%, while the media and IT sector is way ahead of the average.

It's not easy to predict what these figures mean for the IP professional with a micro-practice. Some may wish to join or return to larger practices, where size is equated with comfort and security, while others will consider that the recruitment of senior and then junior professions can be equated with increased overheads that in turn will make larger practices have to work harder to compete with lean, mean smaller practices.  What is apparent, though, is that this growth is apparently confined to the private sector, since the public sector -- where accountability and transparency are becoming the norm -- are hardly likely to be busily filling unadvertised vacancies.