Technology Companies are Hiring — Everywhere


Although the global economy is showing more consistent signs of recovery, we know that economic growth rarely, if ever, occurs in an evenly distributed fashion. This is especially true when you consider regions as vast and diverse as the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Countries develop at different rates, economic recoveries stall and restart, and specific business sectors move at different speeds.

With that said, when it comes to the global technology sector, our most recent Radford Trends Survey shows something quite startling — technology companies are hiring everywhere, and they appear to be equally bullish around the world. In this case, optimism seems to be universal.

What’s more, the change in hiring policies from 2010 to 2014 is dramatic. While year-over-year views of our data reveal a steady step-by-step climb in positive hiring outlooks, a longer-term view reveals a massive jump of roughly 20 percentage points in normal hiring practices across all major regions over the last four years. As the chart below illustrates, the turnaround is significant in scale, sweeping in reach and globally consistent.

Looking back to the second quarter of 2010, the impact of the global recession on hiring policies was potent. Fewer than 50% of technology sector companies in each of the Americas, Asia-Pacific and European regions were hiring at normal rates. In fact, just as many companies, or more in the case of Europe, were hiring selectively. This means they closely scrutinized replacement hires and only recruited for mission critical new hires. In a word, companies were cautious.

Moving ahead to the second quarter of 2014, nearly two-thirds of technology sector companies in all regions are hiring normally. While major layoffs still occur in the technology sector, some in just the last few weeks, they are generally focused on restructuring old lines of business caught up in macro shifts in consumer behavior (e.g., shrinking demand for traditional desktop computing and software in the face of rising demand for cloud services and tablets). On the whole, companies are experiencing healthy headcount growth, both to meet exceptional demand in new business areas and to catch-up on stalled employee additions during the recession years.

Digging a bit deeper, every region also has pockets of exceptional hiring growth. The US leads the Americas region with 16% of companies reporting aggressive hiring policies. In the Asia-Pacific region, China and India lead the way, with 12% and 15% of companies in aggressive hiring modes, respectively. And here in Europe, 7% of UK companies report aggressive hiring policies, followed by 6% of companies hiring aggressively in Ireland.

Our country-level data points to another globally consistent trend: technology companies are especially aggressive when it comes to hiring in talent-rich nations with well-established technology hubs. In essence, they are doubling down on preexisting bases of operation that also have abundant sources of peer talent. This strategy, in combination with an incredibly unique period of widespread technology sector growth in numerous regions, makes the global race for talent all the more contentious.


To learn more about participating in a Radford survey, please contact our team. To speak with a member of our compensation consulting group, please write to consulting@radford.com.

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