Flexible workers, more specifically self-employed workers and professionals employed by secondment agencies, are expected to become 7 percent more expensive on average in 2022. A highly educated professional can increase the hourly rate by an average of 5 percent. For the practically educated, the hourly rate will rise even more: 10 percent. This is according to a rate prediction model for 114 professions developed by labor market data specialist Intelligence Group, which it is presenting for the first time this year in cooperation with HR service provider HeadFirst Group.
Notable rate increases and decreases.
The largest increases are expected within practically trained occupational groups. Especially among machine mechanics (44.6%), plumbers and pipe fitters (36.7%), carpenters (32.6%), electricians and electronics mechanics (28.5%), assembly workers (28.5%), agricultural and forestry workers (25.8%), welders and sheet metal workers (24.8%) and truck drivers (23.9%) are reaping the benefits of the scarcity of their skills. Among highly skilled professionals, it is electrical engineers who can make or see the hourly rate rise the hardest (>20%), followed by managers in sales and marketing (15.3%) and ICT (14.3%). Database and network specialists and structural and nature engineers can also expect their rates to increase by at least 10 percent.
Only the practically educated occupational groups bus drivers and streetcar drivers see their rates under pressure, with a small decrease of 1.3 percent. For the highly educated, this is true of librarians and conservators (2.6 percent) and logistics managers (8.2 percent).
Han Kolff, CEO at HeadFirst Group: "It has been a long-held desire to bring predictive power to the hourly rates of hired professionals. This offers freelancers and secondment companies insight into their market position, equally clients can use the forecast to budget hiring costs for next year. A next step in the smart use of data in organizing flexible labor."
Vacancy rate of great influence
The rate forecasting model is based on nine factors, including the income development of freelancers, inflation, economic growth and vacancy rate. Geert-Jan Waasdorp, director and founder of Intelligence Group: "Rate increases are primarily explained by a constant year-on-year increase of 1.8 percent. Logically, inflation plays an important role in this, but the development of the vacancy rate - the number of vacancies per 1,000 jobs - also has an influence. As this decreases or increases and thus the market becomes tighter or wider compared to the previous year, the rate moves with it. These two factors largely explain the variance in the forecasting model."
The Talent Monitor 'Forecast rate development professionals 2022' is available for free download at hfgroup.headfirst.group.
About Intelligence Group
Intelligence Group is an International Data & Tech company in the field of labor market and recruitment data. Intelligence Group focuses on the collection, storage and enrichment of labor market related data for the purpose of improving the recruitment of personnel (or employees) by employers and the employability/labor market opportunities of employees. This data is made available to clients in a wide variety, via reports, dashboards and APIs.
About HeadFirst Group
HeadFirst Group is a leading, international HR service provider and the largest temporary employment platform for professionals in the Netherlands. The organization offers a diversity of HR solutions: Managed Service Providing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, intermediary services (matchmaking, contracting) and HR consultancy. An average of fifteen thousand professionals work daily for over four hundred clients in Europe, with which HeadFirst Group realizes an annual turnover of over 1.5 billion euros. The main brands of HeadFirst Group are the intermediaries HeadFirst and Between, MSP service provider Staffing Management Services and RPO and recruitment specialist Sterksen.