Norway: A broader and deeper competence base in a maturing sector

Fuelled by low interest rates and strong growth in petroleum investment, the Norwegian economy continues its upswing.

The general outlook remains positive with high profitability in the business sector and growth in fixed business investment remaining firm. Continued low interest rates are expected to fuel private consumption, providing growth impetus to the mainland economy. The key projections for 2007 are a growth in private consumption of 3.0 per cent, in public consumption of 2.7 per cent and gross fixed investments are expected to grow by 1.8 per cent.

The members of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) have adjusted upward their projections for increase in demand for labour to 2.9 per cent in 2007, reflecting the unprecedented growth in employment and corresponding fall in unemployment. One in three enterprises states that shortage of labour contributes to limiting their production and activities in general. Construction, as well as petroleum technology and offshore-related industries experience capacity problems. The construction, tourism and technology sectors report shortage of skilled labour and the number of unfilled vacancies is growing rapidly, e.g. in construction, where unfilled vacancies equals more than 10 pr cent, despite extended use of foreign labour.

The general economic situation is reflected in The Norwegian Public Relations Consultants Association’s (NPRCA/NIR) surveys. The member agencies report an increase in order intake and revenues above last year. Projections for 2007 foresee a continued growth.

Last years’ volume growth has led to a broadly based recruitment to the PR-sector. Existing agencies have grown bigger and several new agencies have been established. Interestingly, recruitment to the business occurs from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, educations and competencies – such as political science, business administration, politics, management consultancies, journalism, marketing, NGOs, law etc. Many are recruited from positions as communications officers in private or public sector. More than 84 per cent of the member agencies’ employees have a bachelor degree or higher - 20 per cent of them having earned their degrees overseas. This reflects the maturing of the Norwegian PR-business and most importantly it reflects the broad spectrum of services demanded by clients. In the fierce competition for talent in labour market, the PR-agencies have shown themselves to be highly competitive.

A recent benchmark survey describing the distribution of types of services showed that media relations services remain fairly stable at about one quarter of total volume, while public affairs represents 10 per cent, crisis management services about 6 per cent, internal communications 15 per cent and top level strategy services 16 per cent.

The survey also showed that an increasing percentage of employees are engaged in what is termed as marketing services. This of course reflects the fact that the PR-agencies’ services are becoming more integral. Product PR is one the services experiencing the strongest growth.

The “average” NPRCA member agency has 11 employees and 28 clients, one third of which having become clients during the last 12 months. Private sector constitutes 65 per cent of revenues, public sector 24 per cent and NGOs 11 per cent. On average 15 per cent of revenues are generated abroad. Not less than 62 percent of total revenues are won in the Oslo/metropolitan area, probably revealing latent potential business opportunities in the rest of the country. Over the last two years, construction is the sector exhibiting the largest relative growth among client sectors, alongside oil & gas and public sector.

Structurally the PR-sector in Norway develops along much the same lines as in other western European countries. 18 per cent of NPRCA member are wholly owned by international groups. 28 per cent have formal cooperation agreements with international constellations of various kinds, while 36 per cent have informal international partners.