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AGDA and Aquent, have joined forces to produce a design industry remuneration and employment benchmarking report to provide design professionals with current information on salary levels, business practices, and growth areas for 2002/2003, the first of its kind for professionals.
After almost 2 years of stagnation in the design industry, the survey points to an exciting shift in optimism amongst owners and managers of design firms.
Rita Siow, General Manager of AGDA, pointed to some very positive signs for professionals working in the design industry. "40 percent of the employer respondents plan to increase staff salaries over the next 6 months. This trend is particularly strong in Victoria and Western Australia and augurs well for the industry as a whole."
Greg Savage, Aquent's CEO for Asia-Pacific, said that the survey indicated that employers were planning to hire more design staff over the next 12 months. "A significant 29 percent of employers surveyed plan to add additional design staff," he said. "These findings are generally consistent with our staffing operations in Australia where we have started to see some increase in demand, in particular for senior designers for corporate ID and branding, packaging designers and senior Mac operators.
On another positive note, 60 percent of employers are forecasting an increase in annual revenue over the next two years.
The questionnaire was administered to AGDA members and Aquent's client-base by direct mail, email, fax, and on the Internet, beginning March 26, 2002 through April 19, 2002. Data from nearly 450 design respondents were collated from a pool of lists that included a large range of design professionals (e.g. ad agency, in-house design department, design studio), both print and digital.
Survey findings were broken down by state and nationally. Based on study estimates, there are approximately 5,500 design firms in graphic design in Australia with the majority of work centred in New South Wales and Victoria.
The in-depth national salary study is the first of its kind for the graphic design industry and extends and build on the AGDA 1996 Industry Study. Check out the Summary Report in the members-only section of the web site. A detailed report will be available in October 2002.
About Aquent
Aquent (http://www.aquent.com) is a global professional service firm delivering Creative and IT solutions. Through a network of nearly seventy offices in twelve countries, Aquent provides staffing, consulting, and outsourcing services in the areas of print and Web design and production; application and database development; and project management. In its fifteen-year history Aquent has made over 200,000 matches of independent professionals with client companies worldwide. Aquent's Asia-Pacific headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia. Aquent is the Official Career Partner of the AGDA.
About AGDA
Founded in 1988, AGDA (http://www.agda.com.au) is the peak national organisation representing the graphic design industry in Australia. With more than 2000 members distributed throughout the communications, technology and creative sectors, it is dedicated to advancing the design profession through an inter-related program of state, national and international activities in education, advocacy and professional development.
"Yeah I agree, My Employer just thinks I will work for nothing at the moment and I am sick of it... all other job salarys are going up around me except Graphic Design, The fact that businesses gain so much from having great design and Identity's shows that Graphic Designers are worth alot more than what they get!! The amount we get paid is disgraceful!! And the amount earned from our designs that go to the companys that we work for is humiliating! It makes designer become less loyal to the companys which exploit us.. the backlash will be huge!"
| Feedback by John Raciti | Tuesday, 13 January 2004 |
"Could we standardise salaries - according to average employment salary rates - according to experiences and skills acquired by the design?"
| Feedback by David Orr | Wednesday, 9 July 2003 |
"Read the Article on AdNews July salary survey. Looks like graphic design industry is a poorly paid industry!
David Orr"
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