Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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enced successive years of improve- ment. In other words, the year-over- year results in 2015 were on top of a pretty strong baseline." Nearly 90 percent of the respon- dents were in hiring mode last year, with demand particularly strong for specialists in property management, leasing and accounting, notes Lindsay M. Pankratz, FPL Associates' survey director. Demand was also high for construction and development ex- perts, said executive recruiter Chris Rollbusch, president of San Diego– based CenterNet Search Group. "These professionals are still hard to find, because so many left the indus- try after the recession," he said. "As- sistant managers started to return for some. But several years ago you could hire an assistant manager for less than $50,000. Today it might take $80,000 or more to attract good talent." But all the optimism notwith- standing, there are those who lean toward caution about the near term. "We are starting to hear some cau- tionary notes in the marketplace," said Jeremy I. Banoff, a senior man- aging director at FPL Associates. "We have had this great run-up over the past few years, but the ques- tion is whether we are at a plateau or maybe the tip of an iceberg. We have already seen some pullback." Rollbusch says some of these jitters may reflect uncertainty over the U.S. presidential election. "Some compa- nies are starting to prepare for reces- sion by reducing staff and slimming down," he said, "but others don't have that sentiment." In conducting the survey, FPL As- sociates saw an 18 percent increase in participation over the previous year, Pankratz noted. "Any company that participates in the survey receives a free copy of the report of findings," she said, "which is a great incentive to participate and help build upon this research." The full report is available from ICSC at www.icsc.org/publications The cost for non-participating ICSC members is $2,995 and $4,995 for non-members. S C T A p r i l 2 0 1 6 / S C T 51 Construction and development experts are in high demand because so many left the industry after the recession.