This year’s beauty industry job market looks good for talent

25-Jul-2016 - Last updated on 26-Jul-2016 at 17:23 GMT

At last night’s CEW event in New York City, job experts from 24 Seven and The Estée Lauder Companies shared insights about the current state of hiring and employment among cosmetic and personal care brands and manufacturers.

The bulk of the data shared at yesterday’s sold-out event came from the Beauty 2016 Job Market Report compiled by talent acquisition and recruitment agency 24 Seven. That firm gathers data each year through a completely confidential survey.

Among the thousands of beauty pros participating in the 2016 survey, manager-level staff were well represented, as were women. 80% of respondents this year were women, according to Lisa Marie Ringus, executive vice president of global sales and business development at 24 Seven.

Beyond that, Ringus noted that many survey participants work in color cosmetics and skin care, and a significant portion hold sales or marketing positions.

Compensation and retention

In this industry, employees switch jobs to gain a higher salary, to increase their potential for growth, to find more opportunity to advance, to move to a more fitting company culture, to improve their quality of life, and to learn new skills, according to data Ringus shared at the CEW event.

That said, fewer cosmetics and personal care industry employees are looking for new jobs this year. 11% are “currently entertaining a job offer,” says Ringus—a huge drip from last year’s 40%.

This year’s data shows that total compensation has increased 6% for non-executive level beauty pros. (That’s the median figure given by 24 Seven.) And, hiring managers responding to the survey reported that only 5% of raises this year will be at or above 10%. 88% of raises will be in the 1 – 9% range. While 48% will be between 1% and 2.9%.

Out of office

Beauty and business require real people engaging in real time to make things happen. And, much the way brands and retailers are searching for the perfect omnichannel blend to sell product online, in store, and beyond, so too are they experimenting to find the right mix of flex-time, telecommuting, and in-the-office hours for workers.

In conversation with Ringus, Richard Ferrara, vice president and global human resources business partner for brands at Estée Lauder, acknowledged that his company (like most in the industry) is still striving to develop a company-wide philosophy about flex-time. But for now, he says, it’s a task that often rests with individual managers.

It’s worth noting that flex-time and telecommuting are quite desirable in the beauty business and are, in fact, among the top five soft benefits employees want most, according to 24 Seven.