Opportunities for charity jobs in 2009 despite the downturn

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 | Updated: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:17 pm | By Julian May

According to analysis by charity recruitment site CharityJOB, the total number of advertised charity vacancies increased by 4.4% since 2007, despite the economic slowdown.

The analysis comes on the back of a recent survey by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), which reports more than 40% of charities are planning to take on more staff, despite a general expectation of a worsening economic climate.

“We are driven by a mission to help charities save millions of pounds from their recruitment budgets,” says CharityJOB co-founder Steve Wexler. “Our cost effective proposition is more valuable than ever in the current economic climate.”

CharityJOB is reporting growth during the downturn on the back of increasing demand for talent from the private sector in the charity and not-for-profit sector.

“With the current downturn there is a clear concern within the charity industry around the availability of funds and the resulting impact on internal budget forecasting for the upcoming year. The private sector is currently experiencing a decline in job roles being advertised and rising numbers of redundancies. However, with the increase in the availability of skilled job seekers the ultimate beneficiaries are going to be those charities that maintain an active recruitment strategy having the ability to pick and chose from a higher calibre talent pool,”  Justin Davies, CharityJOB spokesman told Recruiter.