Jobs market defies credit crunch

Recruitment agencies have told MCV that the games industry is still recruiting heavily, despite growing economic concerns.

As large companies in other industries are being forced to tighten their belts to cope with the credit crunch and potential recession, video game publishers and developers are still on the lookout for talented individuals to add to their business.

We are pleased to say we haven’t seen any downturn in any of our divisions to date,” said Handle Recruitment’s director Peter Tafler. On the contrary, this has in fact been our best year yet. The games and digital sectors are still going through considerable growth so we expect to be busy for some time to come.”

Specialmove’s head of recruitment Matthew Hill added: The overall games market is extremely buoyant with particularly strong demand for experienced online and marketing staff. In addition, we are seeing good growth from a number of smaller companies which – while young – have very experienced management. At Specialmove we are still seeing great demand for our clients.”

Yet despite the industry’s current strength, Game Op’s operations director Steph Woods has warned that any recession could lead to tighter recruitment budgets:

Inevitably an economic downturn will impact on our industry,” she explained. We expect to see a decline in software sales, which will affect publisher profitability. Due to this many studios will be forced to re-examine their requirements and monitor their budgets more closely.”