In-house PR and marketing jobs in the Eastern Region seem to have weathered the storm of the 2009 recession relatively well, with starting salaries generally holding their level or increasing. However, compared with the 08/09 statistics, these increases are at a far lower rate - 5.04% against 15.66% for a Marketing Manager and 0.94% against 16.82% for a Direct Marketing Manager being two prime examples.

Naturally, as the slowdown essentially straddles two financial years, it is difficult to interpret this data. Just as the start of 08/09 was relatively positive, the end of 09/10 saw a resurgent economy. With the trough of the recession falling in 09/10, it is perhaps hardly surprising that the figures from this year are less encouraging than those from the previous year.

As a marketing recruitment agency, one interesting trend that we noted was the demand for Brand Managers and Senior Brand Managers - throughout 09/10 we recruited within the brand management discipline more than any previous year. Many companies were simply keen to increase market share in the diminished market place with a view to maintaining this increased share as the size of the market increases, yet we also recruited for many roles that were working on new projects, or re-launching brands - all positive activity.

We see a less positive scenario with agency side roles than In-house, with starting salaries falling across the board with the exception of those taking account manager roles. The recession of 2009 led to spending freezes as well as redundancies, so whilst we witnessed less work in the marketplace, there were also more candidates looking for jobs. With the balance of supply and demand being tilted in this way, salaries are bound to drop as jobseekers are increasingly inclined to take a lower salary in order to secure work.

Agencies suffered greatly during the slowdown, with many of their clients either putting a freeze on their spending or greatly reducing their throughput to the agency. This could explain why account manager salaries bucked the negative trend. The lion’s share of accounts were either put on hold or would require only maintenance as opposed to rolling out grand new concepts and campaigns, and as such Account Managers were more in demand.

As last year’s review showed, the more focused disciplines of digital and direct marketing were not affected as sharply by the recession, and in many areas showed growth. As the world becomes increasingly digital, we felt it made sense to start including digital agency jobs in our salary reviews – the Eastern Region is home to some high profile digital agencies.

The data here seems to be relatively straightforward and generally reflects ‘received wisdom’ about the differences between sectors – for example, that salaries in the less commercial not-for-profit and charity roles, along with those in services are not as high as elsewhere.

As with previous reviews, it is also interesting to note how the variations between sectors can reflect the different responsibilities and level of seniority a role will hold in different sectors. The prime example of this phenomenon is at Marketing Manager, where we see a variance of almost 47% between Services and Health/Pharmaceutical, and almost 41% between NFP/Charity. This perhaps reflects the relative importance of marketing to the different sort of organisations as well as potentially the differences in organisational structure between them.

There are some interesting trends illustrated here, related to both this chart and how it interacts with the data from 09/10. The A1/M1 corridor has always been a great hub of activity for Brand, with many big clients in St. Albans, Milton Keynes and Luton. It is therefore hardly surprising that Beds/Bucks and Herts are once again the top two areas in terms of the salaries they offer for marketing jobs.

The concentration of business in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk is far lower than in the area mentioned above, which perhaps explains the lower salaries commanded there – as the recession hit hard, there were comparatively less jobs within a reasonable distance for candidates living in these regions. For example Norwich is a big hub of activity yet across the rest of Norfolk, marketing jobs are few and far between – at least when compared with Hertfordshire.

The average commute time of those working in marketing appears to be far higher than the national average, which sits around 27 minutes each way.

Within the region, the commute times for each region appear to be very similar to the 08/09 figures, with the less densely populated areas of Norfolk and Suffolk requiring the longest commutes and those around the populous A1/M1 area being some of the lowest. The one anomaly is the Cambridgeshire statistic, although this could be justified by the large number of people living and working in and around Cambridge and its satellite science and business parks.

The importance of work-balance to PR and marketing professionals is confirmed by the fact that 72% of candidates would take a lower salary for a role closer to home – something employers should pay attention to when looking to recruit.

Most job searches in 09/10 were started on the grounds of finding a better salary. To combine this percentage with those looking for a job that offers them better work-life balance, 50% of candidates were using proactive reasons to look for a job, as opposed to reasons beyond their control.

During the depths of the recession, between 30% and 40% of newly registered candidates contacted Brand as a result of redundancy or uncertainty about the future of their role, so to see a figure of 21% for the year overall indicates an increasingly stable economy.

Employers should pay attention to the fact that over a quarter of candidates start their job search as a result of a lack of career progression or internal politics at their current employer. These are both factors that can – and should – be controlled in order to retain the best talent.