Execs See Moderate Gains in Hiring and Pay

NEW YORK CITY-It’s time for real estate professionals to turn up the shine on their multiple skill sets while waiting for a gradual recovery in the industry’s outlook, says Anthony LoPinto, founder of SelectLeaders Real Estate Job Network. LoPinto’s assessment comes after poring over the results of the firm’s 2011 Hiring Trends Survey, in which more than 85% of the 751 respondents predicted that the industry would manage a moderate recovery at best this year, including 36% who said it will remain flat, although only 11% think we’ll see a contraction. That’s a big turnaround from the 34% of last year’s survey respondents who predicted a contraction in the 12 months ahead.

Accordingly, most respondents took a cautiously optimistic view of the outlook for increases in both hiring and compensation. Forty-two percent expected their company’s hiring to increase in ’11—the same percentage that said it would remain the same as 2010 levels. A year earlier, just 37% predicted increased hiring, while 48% predicted the status quo.

On the question of compensation, including base salary and bonuses, 47% said they’re anticipating an increase. While not a majority of respondents, it’s a notable improvement on the 34% who said that a year earlier, and LoPinto notes that it follows two years of reports of compensation either remaining flat or getting cut. About 35% of respondents saw compensation increases in ’10, with 32.4% withstanding salary cuts and the remainder seeing their pay neither increase nor decrease.

At the companies of 47% of respondents, top performers were rewarded. Twenty-two percent of respondents said nobody at their firms got bonuses in the past year.

Nearly 85% of survey respondents said their companies asked workers to take on additional responsibilities last year without an increase in pay. This reality is reflected in the comment of one respondent: “You can tell this recession is not over by the number of companies still downsizing and laying off workers. I thought the industry was on the upswing, however many businesses are merging or being swallowed by a larger company in their respective industry. Unfortunately, I find that positions that are vacated in my company are not filled. Instead they are asking existing employees to take on parts of the vacating person’s desk.”

Added another respondent, “Outlook is flat. We cut to the bone in 2009 and then more in 2010. Our concern is losing talent. We will not hire but will reward more... who are and have been doing more.”

Individual respondents offered varying takes on the outlook for industry recovery. “Credit appears to be loosening up, but the manufacturing sector is still short on sources,” wrote a respondent. “I believe job growth will continue to be anemic, and fallout from state and local revenue shortfalls continuing to add to this picture. I don’t see anything close to a recovery until 2014.” Conversely, another respondent noted an uptick in architectural billings, “which is usually an indication that movement will begin to increase.”

SelectLeaders conducted the survey in the last week of December ’10 via email among employers who had registered on the SelectLeaders Real Estate Job Site Network, and also to registered job seekers who had opted in for email. Complete survey results are available here; to visit the GlobeSt.com Career Center hosted by SelectLeaders, click here.