It seems that businesses are hiring Interim once again and sectors such as financial services, engineering and manufacturing are particularly buoyant, which is reflected in the figures which show an eight percent rise in activity.

The latest six month Interim Management market snap shot from Russam GMS made interesting reading. The good news was that the research showed a return to growth for the Interim Market following a drop in activity in the later part of last year. This return to growth is supported too by a market analysis from the Institute of Interim Management last week which also showed a rise in activity levels in the market. Interestingly, Interim activity remained static in both central and local government. Whilst there are is still a low level of assignments in the public sector, it might be that things aren’t getting worse and it could mean that the majority of the cuts were made last year, when this same survey recorded a large fall in public sector Interim activity.  

The report also states the gender pay gap in Interim Management is narrowing. In June 2011, the average daily rate for women was £567 compared with £613 for men which is a difference of eight percent. In December last year, the gender pay gap stood at 11 percent. However, this is hardly cause for celebration as men and women in Interim tend to be paid exactly the same daily rate for an assignment. In essence, there shouldn’t be a gap at all.

Charles Russam, Chairman of Russam GMS said that a possible reason for that a proportionately greater number of women than men on our database work in the not for profit sector rather than, say, Financial Services and in disciplines such as HR, where pay can be lower than areas such as general management. I hope he is right as Interim Management is one area where equality in pay should not be an issue. We will be watching these figures closely and let’s hope the gap narrows further in the next sixth months.