Ninety per cent of learning buyers have reduced their training budget says survey

Learning and development jobs specialist Blue Eskimo has just published its annual salary and work survey – the most comprehensive survey of its kind – delivering detailed information on salaries and work from the learning industry and corporate learning departments.

The survey took place in December 2011, when over 800 people answered questions about pay, benefits, working hours, work/life balance, job satisfaction and more.

According to Blue Eskimo director Nick Bate, the survey uncovered a mixture of both good and bad news. “One of the worsening trends,” says Bate, “is the considerable tightening of learning budgets. Most industries are finding things tough, but so far the learning industry has weathered the economic downturn pretty well. But with 90% of training companies saying that their customers are reducing their budgets, there could be quite a squeeze ahead.”

Not surprisingly, the survey also found that around 80% of people are working more hours than those for which they are paid. “We also saw an overall drop in freelance rates,” says Bate, “though salaries within the industry remained roughly static – around 60% of people went without a pay rise this year and around 30% got a rise in line with inflation. Which means less than 10% saw an increase in real terms.”

Balancing out the bad news, around 85% of people cited themselves as being happy, or very happy, in their jobs – an increase on the previous survey’s results. Also, some benefits such as pensions and sick pay actually increased – possibly because they are a more cost- and tax-efficient way to reward employees.

The survey includes the views of people from within the public and private sectors, both salaried employees and freelance contractors. It is the only survey of its kind, commissioned by Blue Eskimo – the recruitment company used by over half of learning professionals when seeking new work.

The results of the training, e-learning and learning salary and work survey are available now, via Blue Eskimo’s website, free of charge. Printed copies will also be available (again, free of charge) at the Learning Technologies exhibition, on 25-26 January 2012 – on Blue Eskimo’s stand, which is stand 17.

News providers may freely use information from the press releases within their own news services. Where an entire press release is copied or significant parts of it copied, then "Training Press Releases" should remain clearly quoted as indicated at the start of each press release.

This news story is a press release from the above company and does not represent the views of Training Press Releases. Please ensure that you read our legal notices. Training Press Releases is not responsible for the content of external websites or services.