By Princewill Ekwujuru
Report from the office of Alliance Recruitment in the USA indicates that many Advertising, Marketing and Sales jobs in Nigeria may be on the line.

The USA-based company said it is as a result of the economic downturn witnessed in the outgoing year. There are insinuations that since many advertising companies in Nigeria are affiliated to some of the overseas-based advertising, marketing, public relations and sales  agencies; the Nigerian market will be affected by anything that happens in the foreign countries.

It was a mixed reaction when marketing experts said that the roles of marketing may shrink if the plans of government to remove the planned subsidy in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the ban of importation of rice come next year, will further aggravate situations in the advertising industry  as  a spillover of the 2011 economic situation.

However, some marketing communications experts in Nigeria said Nigeria may come of it, because Nigeria has a peculiar economic atmosphere that tends to defy some foreign occurrences.

Quoting the Alliance Recruitment report; “Jobs in the advertising, marketing and sales industries will drop in the new year on the back of a slowing economy.”

Paul Barbaro, Executive General Manager, Alliance Recruitment, said there has been a significant decline in these roles over the past eight months, and argued this drop will continue into 2012.

“People and companies are not buying products and services at the same rate that they had prior to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and as a result, there is diminished need for marketing and sales roles,” he said.

Barbaro also argued that this reduction could be attributed to the increase in online sales.

Some marketing experts argued that this may not happen, because in Nigeria the situation may not be, probably because the number of computer literate persons in Nigeria are not numerous as compared to overseas countries and Nigeria is a cash society, just moving into the cashless society,” it’s only then issues concerning online purchases or sales could have pre-eminence,” the experts pointed out.

The report further said, “despite economic factors, retention of key personnel in the marketing industry will remain high on the agenda of many organisations. Current employees are increasingly detached from their workplace, due to a lack of career opportunities, feeling under-valued and disengagement.

“Companies will need to address this issue to ensure these employees do not move on quickly once employment conditions improve.”