“Majority of Private Companies to Sustain or Boost Employee Count by 2025” 

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,