The market returned with force
After the expected summer slowdown in July, the consulting market shifted up a gear in August. Assignment volume more than doubled, while the increase in available consultants was considerably smaller.
π Assignments & competition
Assignment volume increased by 115.5% compared with July and was 45.6% higher than in August last year.
The recovery was visible across most local markets:
β Norway: +151.3%
β Sweden: +128.2%
β Finland: +69.7%
β Denmark: +43%
β Poland: β9.6%
Poland was the exception after an unusually strong July. The decline may partly reflect the ongoing summer holiday season, while assignment volume remained 57.8% higher than in August last year.
The number of companies advertising assignments increased by 32.2% from July and by 22.1% compared with last year.
The number of available consultants increased by 19.6% from July and by 6.2% year-on-year. Supply therefore grew, but nowhere near as quickly as demand.
Brainvilleβs Unassignment Index, UIX, stands at 5.94% for the latest rolling three-month period. That is 0.1 percentage points lower than in the previous period and 1.2 points lower than a year ago.
Company registrations also reached an exceptionally high level: up approximately 103% from July and 68% year-on-year β the strongest monthly result since February 2016.
Interest is also growing beyond our core markets. Registrations from countries outside the Nordics and Poland increased by 76% from July and by 267% year-on-year, reaching their highest monthly level in our records. The UK, Germany and France were particularly visible, alongside the Netherlands, Spain and several Baltic countries.
π Geography
The metropolitan regionsβ share of the assignment market decreased by approximately 4 percentage points. The August recovery was therefore relatively stronger outside the major metropolitan areas.
π Remote work
The share of assignments offering remote or hybrid work increased from 39.6% to 43.8%.
β Fully remote: from 5.8% to 6%
β Hybrid: from 33.8% to 37.8%
π©βπ» Roles
The role distribution changed as follows compared with July:
β Project Managers: approximately +3 percentage points
β Testers and Test Managers: approximately +2 points
β Solution Architects: approximately +2 points
β DataX: approximately β2 percentage points
β DevOps: approximately β1 point
β Business Analysts: approximately β1 point
Overall, August brought a broad restart after the summer slowdown. Assignments grew much faster than the number of available consultants, UIX continued to fall and company registrations reached their strongest level in more than ten years.
π· The photo is from another early-morning run through Verona, this time on the medieval Ponte Scaligero at Castelvecchio. Running early has one obvious advantage: you can explore the most beautiful parts of a city before the streets fill with people.
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