Despite few economic clouds on the horizon, such as increased interest rates and the concerns over sub prime lending in the US, audit recruitment market remains strong with few pockets of weakness.
There is still an acute shortage of candidates in Risk Management, though there are signs that the market may be reaching one of the highest points.
There is slightly better candidate availability in Internal Audit, Compliance and Information Security; however, there is exceptional competition for the best candidates, with an increasing trend towards paying a premium for specialist experience and skills.
More and more we hear about continuous economic scandals, from ENRON to Société Générale a few weeks ago, this reinforces the message to all companies no matter what size or what sector they belong to, there is a global requirement to establish prescribed internal control framework.
Outside of unforeseen economic or political events, there is little immediate prospect of change in the overall tone of the market. Vacancies continue to outnumber the availability of suitably qualified candidates.
Antal’s Highlights for 2008:
- Increase in the number of internal auditors employed
- Banking market to continue increasing open positions (Credit Europe Bank, ABN Amro)
- Salary increases according to specific qualification
- Antal expects the internal audit recruitment market to increase the demand of experienced internal auditors.