Audit Recruitment Market March 2009

There’s little doubt that audit recruitment has softened in the last six months. The number of ‘Big 4′ recruitment specialists on the market testifies to the state of that particular market. And beyond the shores of the UK, markets in the Middle East and Russia, which until six months ago were still considered ‘hot’, have frozen most of their recruitment.

Recruitment into the public sector has held in parts and this might be the ideal time for local councils and government organisations to recruit candidates they would have found difficult to attract this time last year. Also, the lifestyle demands of international internal audit means that this market has stayed relatively candidate driven.

Interestingly, the number of candidates coming onto the market has remained steady. Candidates visiting CareersinAudit.com peaked at the end of January 2009, but the figures have remained consistent since then. The number of candidates registering on the site has risen but hardly points towards widespread panic within the audit community. All of which seems to indicate that auditors remain relatively secure in their roles but they are still willing to move jobs.

CareersinAudit.com continues to be well visited by candidates from across the world (from 178 different countries last month) but the vast majority of visitors to the site are from the UK, US, Italy, Spain, France and the Middle East. However, in the midst of the gloom, recruiters have reported the first tentative green shoots of what is likely to be a very slow recovery, with several noting that hiring freezes are being lifted. Could this be ‘end of the beginning’ of this slowdown?

This article was written by Max Williamson, director of CareersinAudit.com

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