The 2010 Market report from recruiter Barclay Simpson records that, despite a 6% contraction in the economy, there has only been a 1% reduction in the number of people working in Internal Audit. On this basis, the report says, there is little evidence that the response to the recession has been cuts in internal audit staff. It concludes that the internal audit recruitment market, together with other areas of corporate governance and the UK economy more generally, is starting to recover.

In its sector analysis, the report highlights the severity of the impact of recession on the mortgage lending and credit industries but forecasts a modest rise in demand for internal audit staff.  Retailing, construction and other parts of the commercial sector have been similarly hard hit by the recession, says the report, but the impact on internal audit staffing has been as a result of outright corporate failure rather than cost cutting. The fall in Public Sector internal audit vacancies during the second half of 2009 was marked and the severe public finance budgetary restrictions forecast for 2010 is likely to limit external recruitment, as will the drive within local government to pool resources in consortium and partnering arrangements. But Internal audit consortiums, like those in the National Health Service (NHS) have developed and grown, and the report predicts continued recruitment into these throughout 2010.

Whilst the report predicts that general economic recovery will be slow and fragile, it is optimistic that the strength and durability of internal auditing as a profession has been demonstrated during the course of the last two years. This resulting in it being the best performing area of corporate governance, in terms of the employment market.

A full copy of the report can be found on Barclay Simpson's website.

- ends -