As midnight approached and the final minutes of 2013 ticked away, what did you pledge to achieve in 2014? Whether it was losing weight, joining the gym or giving up smoking, many people aim to make a fresh start when the clocks strike on the 31st December.

In addition to some of these most popular New Year’s resolutions, many people will have vowed to improve their professional lives this year by finding a new job that better suits their career ambitions and salary dreams
or expectations.

Thankfully, especially for those seeking a job-related change, unemployment is falling, with the latest figures showing that it declined from 7.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2013 to 7.6 per cent in the three months to
the end of September – its lowest level in four years.

40% of all agency jobs are now filled by rookies or trainees as there aren’t enough experienced staff.

The latest data from the Once for National Statistics showed that the recovery in the economy generated a significant increase in job creation during the summer with an extra 177,000 people in work.

The UK’s increasing population means that a record number of people – 29.95 million – are currently in work with the employment rate now lower than it was before the severe recession of 2008-09.

Chris Williamson, economist at Markit, said, “The UK labour market is booming alongside the recent surge in economic growth. Job creation is surging, with employment up by 177,000 in the three months to September, while surveys suggest further strong growth is to be expected.”

JOBS OUTLOOK IMPROVING

Unemployment will continue to fall as the economy rebounds, George Osborne declared in his Autumn Statement in December, as he highlighted an improving jobs outlook from the Government’s economic forecasters.

The Chancellor said that the unemployment rate would fall to 7.1 per cent this year from 7.6 per cent in 2013. He also unveiled forecasts from the independent Once for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which showed that the OBR expect unemployment in 2015 to drop further to 7 per cent and to continue falling after that to hit 5.6 per cent in 2018.

In the light of improving jobs data, George Osborne declared that the coalition Government had been right in its economic strategy, with the private sector creating three jobs for every one job lost in the public sector.

The Chancellor said, “This (rising number of jobs) is being felt right across the country – since 2010 the number of jobs in Carlisle and on the Wirral, from Selby to South Tyneside, have all grown faster than in London.”

Estate agency jobs

Given the recent rise in activity in the property market, a growing number of estate agents are very keen to recruit new members of staff, but are having limited success.

“The number of job vacancies in the estate agents sector has accelerated in the past two years, with 2013 the busiest for job vacancies in the industry since 2007,” said Anthony Hesse, Managing Director of Property Personnel; but he also pointed out that there is now one major issue. “The main problem that we have is that there are not enough good quality candidates to fill the existing vacancies.”

Skills shortage

The mass redundancies witnessed in the property sector during the last recession in 2008 and 2009 meant that many people left the industry altogether in search of pastures new, leaving the industry with a lack of experienced professionals to satisfy the growing number of vacancies emerging in the sector.

Hesse reports that many of these job vacancies are being filled by “rookies and trainees” with no previous experience in the industry, but who are now looking to forge a career in property in light of improving market conditions.

He commented, “We are currently filling around 40 per cent of all industry vacancies with non-experienced people who are being recruited from outside the property sector. This compares with a long-term average of around 20 per cent.”

You are in demand

If you are doing well in residential property sales, lettings or property management, then you are the type of experienced agent, from Negotiator level to a Director’s position, that employers in this industry need now. Even more interestingly, perhaps, the growing supply-demand imbalance means that your value to an estate agency is growing all the time.

“Whether a small family-owned business or a large company with offices nationwide, employers seeking to hire the best candidates need to be competitive, not just with the salaries that they offer, but also with other things like holiday allowance, among other benefits aside from wages,” Hesse added.

“There are lots of jobs in the industry available now and so if you are looking for change, now is the time to act,” he continued. “A better job, location, company and a higher salary – it’s all possible at the moment.”

Salaries

There has been a sharp rise in the salaries paid to new estate agents, reflecting a strong desire from employers to recruit the very best agents, according to Alan Mead of AMR Group, which has 15 recruitment offices nationwide, providing employers in the property, estate agency and financial services sectors with candidates for their business.

“The push on salaries has been phenomenal over the past two years”, said Mead. “We are seeing candidates leave successful careers in other sectors and graduates fresh out of university with a good level of communication skills, entering the estate agency sector for the very first time with a view to earning a ‘basic’ starter salary from around £25,000 per year, with OTE [On Target Earnings] of nearly double that figure in their first year.” He also points out that these earning are not restricted to London and the South East, they are being achieved nationwide.

Many agencies are now seeking staff who demonstrate that they treat their work as a profession, not ‘just a job’ by achieving, for example, ARLA lettings or NAEA sales qualifications; having these gives applicants a better chance of getting to the top of any interview list and ultimately getting the job. In one particular advert on LCA Recruitment, the letting agent says that the candidate will be required to take the ARLA exam within the first year and, if successful, will see their salary boosted by £5000, a good investment of time and effort for the successful applicant.

The next step

Although many property agencies closed during the recession, every town has several firms offering sales and lettings services and many are now considering hiring more staff, if you are good at your present job and want
to stay in the area, but want to move up a notch, the simplest way sometimes is just to ask around (discretion needed!). Individual agencies also advertise in The Negotiator.

Larger agencies often have their own jobs section on their websites, Your Move, for example, has nearly 100 jobs on its website and they aren’t all in direct sales or lettings roles, seeking valuation consultants, management accountants and, for something a little intriguing, a Protection Specialist.

Countrywide, the largest agency group in the UK, have a constant need for new staff as they grow, with all roles offered online, with a current particular focus on recruiting property professionals with (a minimum) four years’ experience trainee surveyors. Their Trainee Surveyors programme offers full training and associate membership of RICS in as few as eight months, leading to a really good career.

Foxtons are often cited as offering the toughest estate agency training in the business and, if you’re up for the challenge, they have vacancies listed on their website.

Recruitment agencies abound but take a look at the specialist ones listed at the end of this feature, they will usually have the best jobs and the most experience in putting candidates forward for the right job.

AMR is currently offering 350 estate agency jobs, across the UK, in every role from trainee to Director, at attractive salaries and benefits such as company car or car allowance.

A quick search on the property recruitment specialist Deverellsmith’s website showed 156 positions available, ranging from £10,000 to £200,000, which sounds pretty interesting, with employers seeking Trainee Negotiators in Sales and Lettings, New Homes Sales Agents, Document Controllers, Business Development Managers and just about every other role you could think of.

If you have good language skills the world is truly your oyster, as so many London agents now have international desks to manage investors from across the globe, Deverellsmith is currently advertising for staff with fluent Mandarin or Russian while one London agency seeks agents who speak Spanish, French, Polish, German or Portuguese!

So make 2014 the year you take the plunge, move on, move up to a new and exciting role in the property industry!

Contacts:
www.amrgroup.co.uk
www.deverellsmith.com
www.doveandhawk.co.uk
www.lca-jobs.com
www.pearrecruitment.com
www.propertypersonnel.co.uk