Overall findings show that while salaries and hiring are increasing, the shortage of qualified talent means employers will need to work much harder to attract, retain and develop quality talent in markets where key skills are increasingly scarce. This talent shortage is one of the biggest challenges to expansion facing employers across Europe.

Aquent, a global firm specialising in staffing solutions for the marketing, communications and creative industries announced the release of the first ever survey to present findings gathered from across Europe and Asia Pacific in one reference source -- called the Aquent Orange Book.

This unique document presents data by industry sector from across Europe and the Asia Pacific regions, showing detailed results on hiring trends, salary packages, staff retention strategies, and predicted growth.

This year is more comprehensive than ever before, with 7,365 responses from employers across 25 countries -- Australia, Czech Republic, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Overall findings show that while salaries and hiring are increasing, the shortage of qualified talent means employers will need to work much harder to attract, retain and develop quality talent in markets where key skills are increasingly scarce. This talent shortage is one of the biggest challenges to expansion facing employers across Europe.

Over 80% of companies in Europe, except for France and Poland (which are still buoyant, at almost 70%), are looking forward to revenue growth over the coming 12 months.

"While down slightly from 2005, the United Kingdom is again the most confident about salary increases, with 77% of companies anticipating that salaries will rise over the next 12 months. France (68%), Spain (67%) and the Netherlands (66%) are also certain about increases," said Stefan Ciecierski, Aquent's European Managing Director. "France is showing the most dramatic rise in salary expectations, with the number of companies predicting rises up 42% from the same time last year."

Few employers across Europe are planning to increase the number of temporary workers in the next 12 months. Broadly speaking, these expectations are consistent with last year's figures. However, Aquent predicts a greater uptake in the freelance market over the coming year, as a strategy for handling worsening talent shortages and peaks in demand. This will create a war for talent across Europe and adds to the movement of skilled professionals from struggling markets to the creative hot spots, the UK, France and Germany.

Another major trend has been the significant move away from traditional above-the-line advertising to new media and below-the-line communications such as direct marketing, web sites, blogs, SMS, mobile phone marketing and digital television -- again driving a war for new media talent that will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.