The State of the UK Project Management Industry

Online, February 18, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The Project Management Benchmark Report 2011 shows how the UK's economic turbulence is affecting project management practitioners' earnings, aspirations and professional life.

As we entered 2011 talk still abounded about a possible double dip recession and levels of business confidence were questioned; VAT increased to 20%; food and energy prices were on the up, and a raft of other tax changes appeared in the pipeline. Added to all that, the wider impact of the deficit reduction programme started to become apparent as news of cuts and job losses started to appear.

So overall we had lots to ask our respondents about their economic well being and job security through our survey. This year we also took the opportunity to revisit training and accreditation, professionalism and explored the impact of social media in the world of project management.

Survey highlights:
• For 83% of practitioners, remuneration was down during 2010 both in real terms and against increased levels of inflation
• Amongst the public sector employees, 14% of respondents entered 2011 under the threat of redundancy
• Unemployment amongst the PPM respondents recorded at 15%
• Practitioners reported an increased feeling that ageism is once again flourishing in the recruitment process
• After a tough couple of years contractors report seeing light at the end of the tunnel with more opportunity, though rates are still under pressure
• Private sector confidence rising, though pay is not; whilst the public sector prepare for hard times
• Training budgets under further strain in 2011, but Prince2 still holds it dominating position as the de-facto standard
• Only 37% of respondents are aware of their organisations social media policy
• One respondent reports that the much maligned "office smoker" has a new challenger in the form of "social media users" in respect of time off the job!

Commented John Thorpe, Managing Director of Arras People, "This is our sixth annual survey of the project management profession here in the UK, and we are continuing to build an unparalleled repository of information which gives both employers and practitioners a valuable insight into what is happening in this important market.

"Whilst the current market is still tough for many practitioners in both the public and private sectors; we can see clear indications of rising confidence and increased opportunity in the private sector; at the same time the public sector is moving in the opposite direction with low confidence, stagnant earnings and the anticipation of job losses."

The full version of the report can be downloaded from the Arras People Website.

Notes to editors:

Full Report:

• To download the full Arras People Project Management Benchmark Report 2011, go to

http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/project-and-programme-management-resources/the-project-management-benchmark-report-from-arras-people-2011/

Survey methodology and demographics

• Arras People carried out a Benchpoint™ on-line survey in January 2011. Emails were sent to eligible respondents and 1525 responses were received.
• There is a confidence level of 95% and a error margin of +/- 2.49%. (We are 95% sure that any given answer is within plus or minus 2.49% of what the general population of project management professionals would answer).
• Survey demographics-
o Status - Employee 56%, Contractor 29%, Unemployed 15%
o Gender - Male 70%, Female 30%
o Age - Under 34 24%, 35-49 46%, 50+29%
o 60% from London & south east, the rest evenly distributed between the regions
o Sectors:- Private sector 52%, Public sector 28%, Charity/NFP sector 4 %

About Arras People:

Arras People is the Project Management Recruitment Division of Arras Services Ltd. Arras People provides programme and project management professionals and professional project office support personnel across all industry sectors, for either permanent, contract or interim positions.

Arras Services began trading in February 2002, and now provides its services to many of UK's leading blue chip organisations in the UK, as well as public sector (central and local government), IT, engineering, marketing and media organizations, not for profit and charities.