Nine-in-ten private market firms to maintain or increase headcount by mid-2025 — Preqin reports
LONDON, Nov. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Preqin, the global leader in alternative assets data, tools, and insights, published its annual 2025 Preqin Private Capital Compensation and Employment Review report. The report shows that nine-in-ten (89%) surveyed private capital firms plan to maintain or increase headcount over the 12 months from May 2024.
The report’s findings are based on a survey* of 86 leading private capital firms worldwide, as conducted by Ferguson Partners on behalf of Preqin, to collect data on remuneration and how these firms compensate their employees. The most frequent fund type raised by participating firms was real estate (22%), followed by growth capital/equity (21%), leveraged buyout (18%), venture capital (15%), and private debt (11%). In terms of global coverage, 69% of participating firms had offices in the US and Canada, 35% in Europe, and 21% in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, providing a wide range of regions and strategies for analysis.
Through this data, trends related to the size and growth of the private capital industry, employment rates, income received by private capital firms from investors, and individuals’ remuneration are uncovered.
Investment team talent remains in highest demand, but fundraising talent demand spikes
Despite the macroeconomic challenges seen in recent years, the private capital industry continues to grow in size. The report highlights that demand for hiring within the private capital industry should remain robust given the still-positive outlook for private capital.
Regarding hiring trends, professionals working in investment teams, or deal teams, remain the most in demand for hiring and retention, year-on-year from 2023 to 2024. However, demand has fallen slightly from 2023 to 2024, which ties to the slowdown in deals and exits across private capital in recent years. The report shows that 64% of 2024 respondents stated investment team professionals are in the highest demand, compared to 68% of 2023 respondents. Concurrently, a persistently soft private capital fundraising environment, which saw aggregate fundraising fall from $1,634bn in 2022 to $1,409bn in 2023, has seen the largest absolute increase in demand for fundraising professionals. 9% of respondents put fundraising professionals as the most in demand in 2023 – this rose to 15% of respondents in 2024.
Female representation improves across all seniority levels in 2024
Representation of women, by organizational levels across surveyed private capital firms, continues to make progress. Representation of women in senior management roles is up from 28% in 2023 to 39% in 2024. Over the same period, representation in mid-level roles grew from 41% to 45%, and junior-level roles reached 49% (up from 46%), according to the same firms. At 14%, executive management roles also saw growth in 2024, although at a slower pace, up from 13% in 2023**.
Cameron Joyce, Global Head of Research Insights at Preqin, says, “Private markets’ slower assets under management growth in recent years, largely due to the higher interest rate environment, has resulted in industry headcount growth slowing. However, talent is still in demand as the industry continues to grow, with assets under management forecast to reach $23.5tn in 2029, up from $12.2tn at the end of 2023.”
Additional key findings include:
- Hiring to continue but at slower rate: Almost a quarter (23%) of 2024 respondents believe that they will be hiring at a slower rate over the coming year, compared to 8% saying so in 2023.
- Junior- and mid-level roles see larger base salary increases than senior-level roles: Junior-level and mid-level roles saw median increases in base salary of 8% over the 2023-2024 fiscal year. In comparison, senior-level roles and executive-level roles saw median increases of 6% and 5%, respectively, over the same period.
- Co-investment by management: The report finds that almost half (47%) of respondents require management to co-invest alongside the fund, in the aim of aligning investor and fund manager interests.
Notes to the editor
* The survey was carried out in May 2024. Where data points are referred to as from 2023 or 2024, it is specifically from May of that year when the survey took place. For forward-looking data points, they also fall under a 12-month timeframe, to May 2025, unless stated otherwise.
** The methodology used in this report splits organizational levels as follows: Executive management, senior-level professionals, mid-level professionals, and junior-level professionals. Preqin’s Women in Alternatives 2024 report uses a different methodology, covering 350,000 professionals and 50,000 firms in alternatives.
If you would like more information or would like to speak with the report author, please contact Oliver Keyser at oliver.keyser@preqin.com
About Preqin
Preqin, the Home of Alternatives™, empowers financial professionals who invest in or allocate to alternatives with essential data and insight to make confident decisions. It supports them throughout the entire investment lifecycle with critical information and leading analytics solutions. The company has pioneered rigorous methods of collecting private data for over 20 years, enabling more than 200,000 professionals globally to streamline how they raise capital, source deals and investments, understand performance, and stay informed. For more information visit www.preqin.com.
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