Social Media the One Bright Spot for PR Hiring

While economists argue about whether we are now through the recession or whether we’re headed for a double dip, the Labor Market Outlook Report by the Society of Human Resource Management reports that 56% of their respondents expect job growth for the third quarter of 2010. 98% of U.S. companies say they plan to award base salary pay increases in 2011.
How is PR faring?

Executives polled in the The Creative Group Hiring Index for Marketing and Advertising Professionals said PR and marketing research top their list of new hires they plan to add in the next year. But the Simply Hired metro area job trend report shows that PR jobs are highly sought after by job seekers, putting PR high on the list for ‘most competitive jobs’ in a majority of the 15 cities they track.

One area in PR that is a bright spot in this tough hiring market is social media. The biggest stumbling block to getting started with social media programs is a lack of resources and knowledge, say the majority of firms and already 59 percent of the Fortune Global 100 firms have invested in recruiting staff specifically assigned to core social media duties that include customer outreach, PR and marketing support and internal communications.

Online recruitment sites are being flooded with social medial positions. At Indeed.com the number of social-media job postings has increased by more than 600 percent, from roughly 3,000 in 2005 to 21,323 as of May 2010. Yahoo HotJobs has also seen a significant rise in positions with a social-media component, says a Newsweek article.
“Hiring managers, recruiters, and management staff are often confused on where they can find qualified social media professionals for corporate positions. They get a lot of resumes, but few are qualified,” says Jeremiah Owyang on his blog.

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