The local job market did not have an easy time in 2009. Both employers and employees pursued one main goal – survival. Companies tried to reduce their expenses by all available means, including by making employees redundant and cutting salaries and social packages. It was not unusual for one employee to take on the responsibilities of two or three people.

It's an employer's market now, say specialists. The competition between job hunters continues to grow, since the number of job offers is outstripped by demand. The financial crisis has been a stressful time for employees. Worried by the unstable situation on the labor market and by the deficit of job offers, employees have little choice but to tolerate their working conditions. It is far less common now for employees to quit their job without securing a new one first.

"Even if they are dissatisfied with their job, employees fear entering the open market, because there have been many cases when good specialists searched for a new job for more than a year, due to their own fastidiousness and due to caution on the part of companies," said Tatyana Tangisheva, business development director at HPS Group.

Signs of revival

Things finally appear to be looking up, however. HR specialists agree: The beginning of this year saw the labor market begin to stir.

"From what I hear from my Consort Group partners in Moscow, the HR market started recovering this year at a reasonably moderate pace, with their portfolio doubling in size during the last two months," said Yury Mikhailov, managing partner at Consort Petersburg. "They believe it may get back on track in six months or so provided there are no major cataclysms in the economy, both in Russia and worldwide."

"The labor market has started to make its first, still cautious, steps towards increasing demand for staff," said Irina Babenko, senior consultant at Consort Petersburg. "Many of our clients have resumed the recruitment of personnel, and most of them plan to end a moratorium on recruiting new personnel by the middle of the year."

"The positive trends relate to the fact that in 2010 the labor market became more active; most companies have already taken measures to cut expenses and now they are looking for strategic development," said Yelena Kolkova, general director of Staffwell in St. Petersburg. "However, a negative trend is that there are companies that have decided to freeze their projects during 2010 to 2011."

Companies aim to replace employees who have proved to be inefficient during the crisis. They are looking for senior managers who will offer a new effective approach to business management in a changing economic situation. There is still a shortage of highly professional specialists, however.

"The economic crisis hasn't produced new specialists," said Babenko. "Companies whose strategy is to be the leader of their sector continue to hunt for outstanding heads in different sectors, and they are ready to offer them pre-crisis levels of compensation."

Growing Demand

According to a recent survey conducted by Antal Russia on labor market trends, there has been significant growth of the number of vacancies for financial experts since the end of 2009, especially in the pharmaceutical and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors. Analysts are also observing a growth in accountancy recruitment. New vacancies appear in start-up companies more frequently, especially in retail, FMCG and cosmetics, as well as in the manufacturing sector. Employers in retail banking are looking for talented professionals in risk management and bad debts restructuring and collateral.

"Strong market players are looking for managers to develop new products," said Tatyana Bartyuk, senior consultant for Antal's banking team. "Banks aiming to develop are hiring personnel to open new branches, and some banks which fired too many front-of-office personnel are now filling these gaps with new people."

The number of sales vacancies also continues to grow – there is an increase in demand for good sales professionals.

According to Alexei Trushin, principle consultant at Antal's marketing recruitment department, the demand for marketing research managers remained stable in 2009 at large FMCG companies as well as marketing agencies.

"The demand for such professionals remains high and the general market growth is stimulating the growth of interest in them."

"The situation on the IT market had stabilized somewhat by the start of 2010," said Yulia Solyaeva, consultant at Antal's IT recruitment department. "The most activity has been observed amongst businesses which are more dependent on IT, such as banks, investment companies and phone network operators."

According to Antal, stability is being observed in the area of HR. The transformation of HR functions had come to an end in many companies by the beginning of 2010. "Now we are generally looking for people to fill vacancies which have opened because of structural changes in HR," said Yelena Birykova, head of Antal's HR recruitment department.



Changing expectations

The salary expectations of job hunters have changed. In times of crisis, candidates look for stability, and today, a company's brand could have a greater value than remuneration. Employees resolve to change their current job when they feel dissatisfied with poor working conditions, low salaries, a lack of social guarantees and lack of opportunity for professional development.

"Many candidates are prepared to take a pay cut if the offer comes from a stable company that has a good client order book and a fixed position on the market," said Babenko.

Stability, a company's plans for development, the potential for professional self-realization, official registration of employees and level of remuneration are the major expectations of job hunters.

The expectations of employers have also changed. Their requirements have become stricter, and they look for professionals who are able to cope with a variety of problems aggravated by the crisis.

"In St. Petersburg there are quite a lot of big manufacturers and head offices of international companies. We can say that the main employers are major international and Russian companies, and medium-sized businesses," said Tangisheva.

"Large international companies continue to offer social packages, but there is a tendency to cut down social packages in smaller Russian companies," said Lyudmila Gordeyeva, consultant at Consort Petersburg.

Candidates who are unable to fulfill their expectations in St. Petersburg sometimes move to other cities. Moscow is a popular destination.

"Many professionals from St. Petersburg moved to Moscow after losing their jobs, where they were welcomed with delight by Moscow employers, because though they possess the same level of competence, they ask for smaller salaries," said Tangisheva.

"In Moscow the active market remains saturated with candidates, but the quality of candidates is lower than employers' expectations; and candidates in professional demand prefer not to change their job, because they have support from their current employer," she added.

The general revival of the local labor market echoes the situation on the global market, but at a more moderate pace.

"Consort's IESF (international executive search federation) partners worldwide are telling us that the global HR market began bouncing back in the last quarter of 2009, and that they are also seeing a considerable increase in activity in the search industry," said Mikhailov.

"St. Petersburg's market has always been less dynamic and more volatile and is showing signs of a slow recovery from the past year's slump, and I believe it might take another year to get back firmly on its feet (though it is not close to reaching the pre-crisis level or volumes yet,)" he added.