In-house flying high
On the whole, most in-house legal teams are very streamlined with a minimum headcount. This means that employees’ workloads tend to be kept constant, and many sectors are finding their workloads remaining high. What it also means is that in-house lawyers are less likely to be hit by redundancies.
While there is a note of caution for 2009, and next year is not expected to be a truly buoyant year, in-house lawyers are hopeful of an improvement in the second half. What we may see in time is the larger companies, that have spent the last few years building up their reserves, buying up smaller companies. As share prices drop, there will be plenty of smaller companies that represent good value for money, and gradually we will go from stagnation to activity.
…business is still flowing from contracts in infrastructure, water and the environment
As we stand at the end of 2008, the mood is cautiously optimistic in the construction sector. At the beginning of the year, there was real concern that once the current pipeline of work had been completed, the workload would then dry up. Fortunately, this has not been the case and business is still flowing from contracts in infrastructure, water and the environment. It is also expected that there will be a movement upwards in property in the next 12 months.
Outsourcing companies are doing well and those that have a lot of exposure to the public sector could do particularly well since Gordon Brown’s announcement that there will be an increase in public spending by bringing forward 2010 budgets. With more money being put into the system, many companies will no doubt benefit. The media industry is another sector that is performing reasonably well in the current climate. Although there have been headcount freezes and redundancies, particularly in areas that have relied on advertising revenue, on the whole, it’s a sector that should be quite resilient as people have less money so choose to spend it on cheaper leisure activities like going to the cinema. There is also a lot of movement and development in new media which should continue to be a growth area in the year ahead.
Headcount freezes
Much of the retail sector is very quiet. Headcount freezes have been put in place until 2009 and predictions for the coming year will not made until the level of purchasing at Christmas has been analysed. Software vendors have also been hit hard. Banks have traditionally been their biggest clients and with the fallout in the financial markets, this source of revenue can no longer be relied upon. In the telecommunications sector, there have also been headcount freezes but the junior to mid level end is busier.
We are probably seeing the most activity on the temporary side of the market. While companies are introducing headcount freezes, there is still a lot of work on and so employers are getting around the headcount by recruiting temporary staff. There are a good number of 3-6mth contracts out there, in a variety of sectors from media to pharmaceuticals, and there is every chance that some roles will go permanent if the economy picks up.
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