TRU’s Premiere Eye on Privacy Showcases Real-Time Job Market Trends

The inaugural episode of Eye on Privacy, a new, innovative monthly webinar series, was hosted by TRU Staffing Partners’ Founder and CEO, Jared Coseglia, alongside industry experts and esteemed colleagues Jess Barre, J.D., Senior Vice President of Recruitment and Account Management, and Sarah Roberts, Senior Vice President of Recruitment and Account Management. The trio took a deep dive into TRU’s monthly job market metrics and unpacked the most important data privacy job market trends of 2023 and the top predictions for what to expect in 2024.

Coseglia began by covering some big picture events, like what happened in the privacy industry in 2023 and how the TRU team sees 2024 shaping up.

“One of the things that makes TRU unique among staffing agencies is our commitment to tracking, defining, and analyzing the behavior of the data privacy job market,” he said. “We have been successful in doing so for the last five years. So, we want to bring all these metrics to the industry in real-time to improve the job seeking and hiring processes.”

Remote, In-Office, and Hybrid Work Preferences for Data Privacy

The first topic the team covered is the one on the tip of everyone’s tongue: the remote versus in-office trends for privacy post-pandemic. That includes who is getting hired in privacy jobs and in what types of roles. Coseglia said that TRU is also looking at what people request (from both job seekers and hiring managers) and how often they change their minds mid-stream. For example, a hiring manager may start the process by saying they need a person in the office four days a week, but by the end of the hiring process, they have someone who they need in an office once per quarter.

Speed of Hire

The speed in which jobs searches are carried out and candidates are hired is also a very important trend that TRU tracks. Coseglia noted that what would have taken an executive-level position pre-pandemic anywhere between three and nine months now takes about 90 days in the privacy industry. Things are infinitely faster and far more streamlined.

TRU tracks the speed of hire at different levels by position type and titles (engineers, analysts, program managers) as well, noting the differences in the time to hire.

“We track how fast the speed of hire from the time a resume is sent to the end point when a candidate verbally accepts an offer,” Coseglia said. “We’ll show you what that data looks like on a monthly basis and what it says about the behavior of the job market as a whole.”

Point of Hire Compensation Metrics

TRU recruiters know there are many salary surveys out in the market: TRU sponsored the IAPP Salary Survey in 2021 and 2022. Coseglia noted how different the market was in those years compared to what it is now. “If you are looking to calibrate your hiring process, there is a different reality happening now,” he said. “That salary information really serves as a wonderful, rich historical data point. But our data will show you what is happening right now and how you can benefit from it.” Things change in data privacy on a month-to-month basis and frequently changes dramatically from quarter to quarter.
 

Offer Acceptance Likelihood

Another volatile trend that TRU tracks is the likelihood that a candidate will accept your offer – whether it is the first offer versus second, third, or even fourth offer. “One thing to think about was in 2022, we found was that if you were the first offer a candidate received, you only had about a 45% chance that it would be accepted,” Coseglia said. “However, flash forward a year, and that percentage has jumped to almost 80%.” That is a very dramatic change by job seekers and TRU tracks the information to give their hiring manager clients a competitive advantage. This shows that if a hiring manager is speedy and makes a good first offer, they have a great chance at getting the top talent they want. 

Contract vs. Direct Hire Full-Time Employment (FTE)

Contract staffing promises to be a huge trend in the coming year. TRU tracks detailed statistics on how contract staffing versus full-time employment changes – contract staffing goes up when full-time goes down, and vice versa. “The privacy job market has a pendulum swing to it,” Coseglia said. “It survives through strong periods of growth and then recesses into slowness in two-year cycles. 2021 and 2022 were huge swings of growth, while the post-pandemic time slowed down.”

The biggest trend coming out of that pendulum swing is that contract work offers a volume of alternative options for hiring managers and job seekers that were never available or viable before. But now the talent is there, the macroeconomic functions are there, and contract work thrives as a result in the privacy industry. Where there used to be only full-time roles, the industry offers something for every lifestyle.

Privacy Job Seeker Motivations

TRU recruiters talk to hundreds of privacy professionals every week – the first question TRU will ask is: Why are you interested in exploring the job market? TRU conglomerates all those answers and forms trends from what they learn. Knowing what motivates both job seekers and hiring managers helps define what the market is doing and why. “In 2021, the key motivator was individuals wanting to work remotely from home,” Coseglia said. “Late last year, the top motivator was burnout, which wasn’t even on the top five list in the year before.” Burnout occurs when hiring stagnates and privacy staff is overworked. Most privacy programs are understaffed while the workloads remain high.

Top Trends from 2023

Coseglia touched on each of these top trends from last year. All these statistics will be updated each month as Eye on Privacy progresses. He noted that most of the privacy jobs available today are in corporations, and as rules shift, he advises his clients that attrition will occur if too much emphasis is placed on in-office requirements.

Similarly, Coseglia expects contract employment to surge within the privacy industry to solve the burnout issue and provide relief to full-time employees.

Act Now to Get in the Privacy Game

The data privacy job market is in constant flux, and TRU equips the data privacy community in real-time with the knowledge needed to navigate challenges. There are many roles open in the privacy industry, especially for contract professionals – see the TRU Staffing Partners website for details. Stay tuned to Eye on Privacy each month to know where the industry stands in real time. It’s important to get ready to make your move for either a new role or hiring position. Contact a recruiter today for more information.