Contractors working in the retail sector have seen their rates slashed since the recession began, according to Interim Partners’ director of retail and consumer.
Simon Gough made his comments after Ipsos MORI research found that that the daily rates for interim managers in the retail sector fell from £952 before the credit crisis started in the second quarter of 2007 to £706 in Q2 this year.
The demand for retail managers has fallen sharply in the last three years and there is a glut of top quality supply. This combination has understandably put a lot of downward pressure on rates.
During the recession, insolvencies in the retail sector increased and even some major high street names were forced to close their doors.
Unlike other sectors, the retail sector has put the majority of its major management projects on hold in a bid to reduce costs and only projects considered essential to provide savings have been implemented.
On the whole, 92% of interim professionals and umbrella company workers do not believe the market will improve for a very long time. Research from the Institute of Interim management shows that 13% of those surveyed believe the interim market is dead whilst 54% say it is sluggish.
However, this pessimism may not be justified as the Ipsos Mori poll also found that UK organisations actually increased their use of interim executives by 9% in the first half of this year. In particular there was a significant increase in the use of interims in the biotech, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
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Image: two reasons by B Rosen
