G2, an IT-specific recruiting agency, has revealed that the average salary for a programme manager is now PS70.196. This is a decrease from the PS72510 last fiscal year.
I was surprised at the narrower range of salaries available to programme managers. Last year, the average minimum salary was PS65,513 while the maximum was at PS74,990. Last year, the average minimum was PS65,513 and the maximum was PS74,990. The south east is a desirable area to work. London salaries average PS80,006 (PS86.875 the highest). London is the most desirable area for program managers. The average salary in the south east is PS72.273.
The lowest paid programme managers in Sheffield receive salaries of only PS40k, despite the fact that this area is more desirable than Canary Wharf and the whole of Scotland and Wales.
Even though salaries are falling, program and project managers are still in good financial shape in terms of their salary – so long as they have a job. According to the Office for National Statistics and Wellingtone (a reliable source of analysis about trends in recruitment), the UK’s unemployment rate has now risen to above 2 million for only the second time since 1997.
Wellington points out that there is no north/south divide or secondary industry/services division in the recession (although I thought that financial services had been particularly hard-hit?). They are recognizing that there is only one difference in the public and private sectors. Redundancies are currently being borne entirely by the private sector.
The December issue of Wellingtone’s last whitepaper on the future and state of project management recruitment was published. It was very optimistic. However, optimism has diminished in the space of a few months.
“Initial resilience seems now to have been worn away with the wider lack of business confidence now directly impacting new investments, projects and new investments. Organisations that are not aligned with [strategic Business Change Projects aligned avec Cost Reduction] may find themselves with fewer projects (both client driven as well as internal), but with a pool of project managers.
The article then claims that making project managers redundant is an inefficient use of our skills (thanks !!).).). Although it would be unusual for a recruiter company to have such an attitude, they have a point. Even if that means closing down offices and making them smaller, we are expected to be able change businesses. We need to be able focus on revenue-generating, strategic stuff. Even though we may have to pay a lot to acquire this skill, we can still be valuable assets to struggling companies if it is done well.
Craig Brown said that we do good work as a profession. Craig, thank you for pointing out that our industry is “populated with a large number of high-quality individuals.”