Cobalt news
Technically Speaking
Timothy Rowe
15/09/2008
The technical recruitment market has finally caught the cold that has affected a number of recruitment markets of late. As companies catch up on their pipeline and the order books remain relatively stagnant, there is an air of caution surrounding the subject of resourcing. However, this does not spell the end of opportunities in the construction sector, not by any stretch. There are a number of locations, sectors and organisations that remain insulated from the current climate. The buoyant locations on the world map are well documented. The Middle East ploughs ahead in its inimitable pursuit of urban greatness whilst Central and Eastern Europeis enjoying the type of burgeoning conditions that come with throwing out the economic reform welcome mat. There are a number of UK based real estate investment funds who are tooling up to convert their recently acquired development assets, and as is the case with most of them they want UK bred expertise driving their development programs.
On the home front it is not all doom and gloom either, despite the woes of the house-building sector. Most of the construction biased consultancies have proven to be exceptionally agile beasts, moving quickly towards the market sectors where there is steady activity and more importantly plenty of work to go around. Government sponsored frameworks in the education, law & order, arts & heritage, sports & stadia and civil infrastructure sectors are providing a number of firms with more work than they can resource for at the moment. The employment of Project Managers and Quantity Surveyors with experience in these particular sectors is as vociferous as it was during the “good times”. In the UK the 2012 Olympics is having a positive and welcome impetus on public building project and is absorbing some of the slack in the private sector. This scenario illustrates the structural lack of trained real estate professionals and with small numbers of professionally qualified individuals coming into the market annually the profession is largely protected from over supply issues. It will be interesting to see if there is a prolonged downturn in the market which resulted in the exodus of professionals to other industries. This occurred in the early 1990’s and caused much of the demand and supply issues of the recent prolonged property market boom in the UK and other western markets.
On the client side the popular theme is vigilance & diligence. The majority of developers, particularly the multi-sector players, have retreated into a holding pattern where they are watching and waiting. Quiet sentiment would suggest that come Q1/Q2 2009 developers will be starting to add to their pipeline with a view of capitalising on the anticipated turnaround during 2010 (as long as the credit markets start to clear). On the back of this preparation there is still a demand for senior project professionals who can traverse the development lifecycle. These individuals are being called upon to guide development assets through planning and into a state of build readiness.
Outside the traditional developers there are certain highly visible organisations who defy the market with the scale and boldness of their schemes; these companies are absorbing talent at an ever increasing rate, which thankfully appears sustainable. This long term approach and the introduction of new markets, noticeably in the Middle East, Eastern Europe/CIS and Asia has neutralised the downturn in the UK and North America. The long anticipated globalisation of the professional workforce is in evidence and is ensuring a balance of demand for real estate professionals.